Project description:Zero-valent sulfur (ZVS) distributes widely in the deep-sea cold seep, which is important immediate in the active sulfur cycle of cold seep. In our preview work, a novel ZVS formation pathway discovered in the deep-sea cold weep bacterium Erythrobacter flavus 21-3 was described. However, whether this pathway worked and what function roles it played in the cold seep were unknown. In this study, E. flavus 21-3 was verified to produce zero-valent sulfur in the cold seep using genes soxB and tsdA as our preview report described. Based on proteomic data, stoichiometric methods and microscopic observation, this ZVS formation pathway benefited E. flavus 21-3 in the deep-sea cold seep. Notably, 30% metagenomes contained these two genes in the shallow sediments, which present the most abundant sulfur genes and active sulfur cycle in the cold seep sediments. It suggested that this sulfur formation pathway exist across many bacteria in the cold seep. This strongly indicates that this novel pathway might be frequently used by microbes and plays an important role in the biogeochemical sulfur cycle in cold seep.
