Project description:The fate of the carbon stocked in permafrost soils following global warming and permafrost thaw is of major concern in view of the potential for increased CH4 and CO2 emissions from these soils. Complex carbon compound degradation and greenhouse gas emissions are due to soil microbial communities, but their composition and functional potential in permafrost soils are largely unknown. Here, a 2 m deep permafrost and its overlying active layer soil were subjected to metagenome sequencing, quantitative PCR, and microarray analyses. The active layer soil and 2 m permafrost soil microbial community structures were very similar, with Actinobacteria being the dominant phylum. The two soils also possessed a highly similar spectrum of functional genes, especially when compared to other already published metagenomes. Key genes related to methane generation, methane oxidation and organic matter degradation were highly diverse for both soils in the metagenomic libraries and some (e.g. pmoA) showed relatively high abundance in qPCR assays. Genes related to nitrogen fixation and ammonia oxidation, which could have important roles following climatic change in these nitrogen-limited environments, showed low diversity but high abundance. The 2 m permafrost soil showed lower abundance and diversity for all the assessed genes and taxa. Experimental biases were also evaluated and showed that the whole community genome amplification technique used caused large representational biases in the metagenomic libraries. This study described for the first time the detailed functional potential of permafrost-affected soils and detected several genes and microorganisms that could have crucial importance following permafrost thaw.
Project description:The fate of the carbon stocked in permafrost soils following global warming and permafrost thaw is of major concern in view of the potential for increased CH4 and CO2 emissions from these soils. Complex carbon compound degradation and greenhouse gas emissions are due to soil microbial communities, but their composition and functional potential in permafrost soils are largely unknown. Here, a 2 m deep permafrost and its overlying active layer soil were subjected to metagenome sequencing, quantitative PCR, and microarray analyses. The active layer soil and 2 m permafrost soil microbial community structures were very similar, with Actinobacteria being the dominant phylum. The two soils also possessed a highly similar spectrum of functional genes, especially when compared to other already published metagenomes. Key genes related to methane generation, methane oxidation and organic matter degradation were highly diverse for both soils in the metagenomic libraries and some (e.g. pmoA) showed relatively high abundance in qPCR assays. Genes related to nitrogen fixation and ammonia oxidation, which could have important roles following climatic change in these nitrogen-limited environments, showed low diversity but high abundance. The 2 m permafrost soil showed lower abundance and diversity for all the assessed genes and taxa. Experimental biases were also evaluated and showed that the whole community genome amplification technique used caused large representational biases in the metagenomic libraries. This study described for the first time the detailed functional potential of permafrost-affected soils and detected several genes and microorganisms that could have crucial importance following permafrost thaw. A 2m deep permafrost sample and it overlying active layer were sampled and their metagenome analysed. For microarray analyses, 8 other soil samples from the same region were used for comparison purposes.
Project description:Over 20% of Earth’s terrestrial surface is underlain by permafrost that represents one of the largest terrestrial carbon pools, with an estimated ~1700 Pg of carbon (C) contained in the upper 3 m of permafrost. Models estimate that C release from thawing permafrost might represent the largest new transfer of C from the biosphere to the atmosphere as the climate warms. Here we investigated microbial community phylogeny, genetic functional potential gene expression, and protein production patterns along a natural thaw gradient, including permafrost, the seasonally thawed active layer and nearby thawed thermokarst bog, using a combination of molecular “omics” approaches: metagenomics (MG), metatranscriptomics (MT) and metaproteomics (MP). Highlights from these analyses reveal energy yielding microbial processes and potential strategies for microbial survival in permafrost soils, and linkages between biogeochemical process rates and –omics measurements. The results provide new knowledge about microbial life and activity potential in permafrost, the potential importance of iron reduction as a survival strategy under frozen conditions in mineral soils, and the importance of methanogenesis following thaw. The multi-omics strategy demonstrated here enables better mechanistic understanding of the ecological strategies utilized by soil microbial communities in response to climate change. Associated metagenomics data available at the EBI Metagenomics portal under the accession number <a href="https://www.ebi.ac.uk/metagenomics/projects/SRP052575">SRP052575</a>.
Project description:It remains challenging to study the viability and metabolic activity of microorganisms buried in ancient permafrost. We coupled aspartic acid racemization assay with metaproteomics to constraint the microbial activity of indigenous microbial community entrappped in permafrost sediment over 100 kyr ago.