Dataset Information

Chemoautotrophic growth of ammonia-oxidizing Thaumarchaeota enriched from a pelagic redox gradient in the Baltic Sea.

ABSTRACT: Ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) are an important component of the planktonic community in aquatic habitats, linking nitrogen and carbon cycles through nitrification and carbon fixation. Therefore, measurements of these processes in culture-based experiments can provide insights into their contributions to energy conservation and biomass production by specific AOA. In this study, by enriching AOA from a brackish, oxygen-depleted water-column in the Landsort Deep, central Baltic Sea, we were able to investigate ammonium oxidation, chemoautotrophy, and growth in seawater batch experiments. The highly enriched culture consisted of up to 97% archaea, with maximal archaeal numbers of 2.9 × 10(7) cells mL(-1). Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA and ammonia monooxygenase subunit A (amoA) gene sequences revealed an affiliation with assemblages from low-salinity and freshwater habitats, with Candidatus Nitrosoarchaeum limnia as the closest relative. Growth correlated significantly with nitrite production, ammonium consumption, and CO2 fixation, which occurred at a ratio of 10 atoms N oxidized per 1 atom C fixed. According to the carbon balance, AOA biomass production can be entirely explained by chemoautotrophy. The cellular carbon content was estimated to be 9 fg C per cell. Single-cell-based (13)C and (15)N labeling experiments and analysis by nano-scale secondary ion mass spectrometry provided further evidence that cellular carbon was derived from bicarbonate and that ammonium was taken up by the cells. Our study therefore revealed that growth by an AOA belonging to the genus Nitrosoarchaeum can be sustained largely by chemoautotrophy.

SUBMITTER: Berg C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4295551 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Chemoautotrophic growth of ammonia-oxidizing Thaumarchaeota enriched from a pelagic redox gradient in the Baltic Sea.

Berg Carlo C Listmann Luisa L Vandieken Verona V Vogts Angela A Jürgens Klaus K

Frontiers in microbiology 20150115

Ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) are an important component of the planktonic community in aquatic habitats, linking nitrogen and carbon cycles through nitrification and carbon fixation. Therefore, measurements of these processes in culture-based experiments can provide insights into their contributions to energy conservation and biomass production by specific AOA. In this study, by enriching AOA from a brackish, oxygen-depleted water-column in the Landsort Deep, central Baltic Sea, we were able ...[more]

PMID: 25642221

Similar Datasets

Project description:The sediment-water interface is an important site for material exchange in marine systems and harbor unique microbial habitats. The flux of nutrients, metals, and greenhouse gases at this interface may be severely dampened by the activity of microorganisms and abiotic redox processes, leading to the "benthic filter" concept. In this study, we investigate the spatial variability, mechanisms and quantitative importance of a microbially-dominated benthic filter for dissolved sulfide in the Eastern Gotland Basin (Baltic Sea) that is located along a dynamic redox gradient between 65 and 173 m water depth. In August-September 2013, high resolution (0.25 mm minimum) vertical microprofiles of redox-sensitive species were measured in surface sediments with solid-state gold-amalgam voltammetric microelectrodes. The highest sulfide consumption (2.73-3.38 mmol m-2 day-1) occurred within the top 5 mm in sediments beneath a pelagic hypoxic transition zone (HTZ, 80-120 m water depth) covered by conspicuous white bacterial mats of genus Beggiatoa. A distinct voltammetric signal for polysulfides, a transient sulfur oxidation intermediate, was consistently observed within the mats. In sediments under anoxic waters (>140 m depth), signals for Fe(II) and aqueous FeS appeared below a subsurface maximum in dissolved sulfide, indicating a Fe(II) flux originating from older sediments presumably deposited during the freshwater Ancylus Lake that preceded the modern Baltic Sea. Our results point to a dynamic benthic sulfur cycling in Gotland Basin where benthic sulfide accumulation is moderated by microbial sulfide oxidation at the sediment surface and FeS precipitation in deeper sediment layers. Upscaling our fluxes to the Baltic Proper; we find that up to 70% of the sulfide flux (2281 kton yr-1) toward the sediment-seawater interface in the entire basin can be consumed at the microbial mats under the HTZ (80-120 m water depth) while only about 30% the sulfide flux effuses to the bottom waters (>120 m depth). This newly described benthic filter for the Gotland Basin must play a major role in limiting the accumulation of sulfide in and around the deep basins of the Baltic Sea.

Project description:The Baltic Sea is one of the largest brackish water bodies in the world. Redoxclines that form between oxic and anoxic layers in the deepest sub-basins are a semi-permanent character of the pelagic Baltic Sea. The microbially mediated nitrogen removal processes in these redoxclines have been recognized as important ecosystem service that removes large proportion of the nitrogen load originating from the drainage basin. However, nitrification, which links mineralization of organic nitrogen and nitrogen removal processes, has remained poorly understood. To gain better understanding of the nitrogen cycling in the Baltic Sea, we analyzed the assemblage of ammonia oxidizing bacteria and archaea in the central Baltic Sea using functional gene microarrays and measured the biogeochemical properties along with potential nitrification rates. Overall, the ammonia oxidizer communities in the Baltic Sea redoxcline were very evenly distributed. However, the communities were clearly different between the eastern and western Gotland Basin and the correlations between different components of the ammonia oxidizer assemblages and environmental variables suggest ecological basis for the community composition. The more even community ammonia oxidizer composition in the eastern Gotland Basin may be related to the constantly oscillating redoxcline that does not allow domination of single archetype. The oscillating redoxcline also creates long depth range of optimal nitrification conditions. The rate measurements suggest that nitrification in the central Baltic Sea is able to produce all nitrate required by denitrification occurring below the nitrification zone. Two color array (Cy3 and Cy5): the universal standard 20-mer oligo is printed to the slide with a 70-mer oligo (an archetype). Environmental DNA sequences (fluoresced with Cy3) within 15% of the 70-mer conjugated to a 20-mer oligo (fluoresced with Cy5) complementary to the universal standard will bind to the oligo probes on the array. Signal is the ratio of Cy3 to Cy5. Three replicate probes were printed for each archetype. Two replicate arrays were run on duplicate targets.

Dataset Information

Chemoautotrophic growth of ammonia-oxidizing Thaumarchaeota enriched from a pelagic redox gradient in the Baltic Sea.

Publications

Chemoautotrophic growth of ammonia-oxidizing Thaumarchaeota enriched from a pelagic redox gradient in the Baltic Sea.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets