Dataset Information

Archaea in coastal marine environments.

ABSTRACT: Archaea (archaebacteria) are a phenotypically diverse group of microorganisms that share a common evolutionary history. There are four general phenotypic groups of archaea: the methanogens, the extreme halophiles, the sulfate-reducing archaea, and the extreme thermophiles. In the marine environment, archaeal habitats are generally limited to shallow or deep-sea anaerobic sediments (free-living and endosymbiotic methanogens), hot springs or deep-sea hydrothermal vents (methanogens, sulfate reducers, and extreme thermophiles), and highly saline land-locked seas (halophiles). This report provides evidence for the widespread occurrence of unusual archaea in oxygenated coastal surface waters of North America. Quantitative estimates indicated that up to 2% of the total ribosomal RNA extracted from coastal bacterioplankton assemblages was archaeal. Archaeal small-subunit ribosomal RNA-encoding DNAs (rDNAs) were cloned from mixed bacterioplankton populations collected at geographically distant sampling sites. Phylogenetic and nucleotide signature analyses of these cloned rDNAs revealed the presence of two lineages of archaea, each sharing the diagnostic signatures and structural features previously established for the domain Archaea. Both of these lineages were found in bacterioplankton populations collected off the east and west coasts of North America. The abundance and distribution of these archaea in oxic coastal surface waters suggests that these microorganisms represent undescribed physiological types of archaea, which reside and compete with aerobic, mesophilic eubacteria in marine coastal environments.

SUBMITTER: DeLong EF

PROVIDER: S-EPMC49357 | biostudies-other | 1992 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Archaea in coastal marine environments.

DeLong E F EF

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 19920601 12

Archaea (archaebacteria) are a phenotypically diverse group of microorganisms that share a common evolutionary history. There are four general phenotypic groups of archaea: the methanogens, the extreme halophiles, the sulfate-reducing archaea, and the extreme thermophiles. In the marine environment, archaeal habitats are generally limited to shallow or deep-sea anaerobic sediments (free-living and endosymbiotic methanogens), hot springs or deep-sea hydrothermal vents (methanogens, sulfate reduce ...[more]

PMID: 1608980

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Project description:Recent studies have shown that archaea which were always thought to live under strict anoxic or extreme environmental conditions are also present in cold, oxygenated seawater, soils, the digestive tract of a holothurian deep-sea-deposit feeder, and a marine sponge. In this study, we show, by using PCR-mediated screening in other marine eukaryotes, that marine archaea are also present in the digestive tracts of flounder and grey mullet, two fish species common in the North Sea, in fecal samples of flounder, and in suspended particulate matter of the North Sea water column. No marine archaea could be detected in the digestive tracts of mussels or the fecal pellets of a copepod species. The archaeal 16S ribosomal DNA clone libraries of feces of flounder and the contents of the digestive tracts of grey mullet and flounder were dominated by group II marine archaea. The marine archaeal clones derived from flounder and grey mullet digestive tracts and feces formed a distinct cluster within the group II marine archaea, with 76.7 to 89. 8% similarity to previously described group II clones. Fingerprinting of the archaeal community of flounder digestive tract contents and feces by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism of archaeal 16S rRNA genes after restriction with HhaI showed a dominant fragment at 249 bp, which is likely to be derived from group II marine archaea. Clones of marine archaea that were closely related to the fish-associated marine archaea clones were obtained from suspended particulate matter of the water column at two stations in the North Sea. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism fingerprinting of the archaeal community present in suspended particulate matter showed the same fragment pattern as was found for the archaeal community of the flounder digestive tract contents and feces. These data demonstrate that marine archaea are present in the digestive tracts and feces of very common marine fish. It is possible that the marine archaea associated with the digestive tracts of marine fish are liberated into the water column through the feces and subsequently contribute to the marine archaeal community of suspended particulate matter.

Dataset Information

Archaea in coastal marine environments.

Publications

Archaea in coastal marine environments.

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