Project description:The deep marine subsurface is one of the largest unexplored biospheres on Earth, where members of the phylum Chloroflexi are abundant and globally distributed. However, the deep-sea Chloroflexi have remained elusive to cultivation, hampering a more thorough understanding of their metabolisms. In this work, we have successfully isolated a representative of the phylum Chloroflexi, designated strain ZRK33, from deep-sea cold seep sediments. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA genes, genomes, RpoB and EF-tu proteins indicated that strain ZRK33 represents a novel class within the phylum Chloroflexi, designated Sulfochloroflexia. We present a detailed description of the phenotypic traits, complete genome sequence and central metabolisms of the novel strain ZRK33. Notably, sulfate and thiosulfate could significantly promote the growth of the new isolate, possibly through accelerating the hydrolysis and uptake of saccharides. Thus, this result reveals that strain ZRK33 may play a crucial part in sulfur cycling in the deep-sea environments. Moreover, the putative genes associated with assimilatory and dissimilatory sulfate reduction are broadly distributed in the genomes of 27 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from deep-sea cold seep and hydrothermal vents sediments. Together, we propose that the deep marine subsurface Chloroflexi play key roles in sulfur cycling for the first time. This may concomitantly suggest an unsuspected availability of sulfur-containing compounds to allow for the high abundance of Chloroflexi in the deep sea.
Project description:Light was a ubiquitous environmental stimulus. Deep-sea microorganisms were exposed to a pervasive blue light optical environment. The utilization of blue light by deep-sea microorganisms, especially non-photosynthetic microorganisms, and the downstream pathway after light reception were obscure. Under the enrichment condition surrounded by blue light, a potential novel species named Spongiibacter nanhainus CSC3.9 from the deep-sea cold seep was isolated. Its growth and metabolism under blue light were significantly better than other wavelengths of light. Six blue light sensing proteins, including four BLUF (Blue Light Using Flavin) and two bacteriophytochrome, were annotated in the genome of strain CSC3.9. Then, with the assist of proteomic analysis, we demonstrated that 15960-BLUF was a crucial blue light receptor that interfered with motor behavior through chemotaxis pathway by means of in vivo and in vitro verification. In addition, 15960-BLUF mediated part of the blue light to promote the growth of strain CSC3.9. Further, we summarized the functional BLUF proteins from isolated marine microorganisms, and the high abundance distribution of BLUF similar to the downstream unresponsive domain type in strain CSC3.9 was demonstrated. The widespread distribution of BLUF protein in marine bacteria implied the extensiveness of this regulatory mechanism, and wavelength variation of light was a potential means to isolate uncultured microorganisms. This was the first reported in deep-sea microorganisms that BLUF-dependent physiological response to blue light. It provided a new clue for the blue light adaptation of microorganisms in disphotic zone.
Project description:We compared genetic profiles of planktonic stage to biofilm stage of deep sea bacterium Pseudoalteromonas sp. SM9913 and revealed genetic features during switch from planktonic to pellicle stage in Pseudoalteromonas sp. SM9913.
Project description:Physiological and gene expression studies of deep-sea bacteria under pressure conditions similar to those experienced in their natural habitat are critical to understand growth kinetics and metabolic adaptations to in situ conditions. The Epslilonproteobacterium, Nautilia sp. strain PV1, was isolated from hydrothermal fluids released from an active deep-sea hydrothermal vent at 9°N on the East Pacific Rise. Using a high pressure/high temperature continuous culture system we established that strain PV-1 has the shortest generation time of all known piezophilic microorganisms and we investigated its protein expression pattern in response to different hydrostatic pressures. Proteomic analyses of strain PV-1 grown at 200 Bars and 5 Bars showed that pressure adaptation is not restricted only to stress response or homeoviscous adaptation, but that it is more diversified and protein specific, with a fine and variegated regulation of enzymes involved even in the same metabolic pathway. As previously reported, proteins synthesis, motility, transport and energy metabolism are all affected by pressure, although to different extents. In strain PV-1, low pressure condition seems to activate the synthesis of phage-related proteins and an overexpression of enzymes involved in central carbon metabolism.
Project description:Sulfur metabolism in the deep-sea cold seep has been mentioned to have an important contribution to the biogeochemical cycle of sulfur in previous studies. And sulfate reducing bacteria have also been considered to be a dominant microbial population in the deep-sea cold seep and play a crucial role in this process. However, most of sulfate reducing bacteria from cold seep still cannot be purely cultured under laboratory conditions, therefore the actual sulfur metabolism pathways in sulfate reducing bacteria from the deep-sea cold seep have remained unclear. Here, we isolate and pure culture a typical sulfate reducing bacterium Desulfovibrio marinus CS1 from the sediment sample of the deep-sea cold seep in the South China Sea, which provides a probability to understand the sulfur metabolism in the cold seep.