Depth drives the distribution of microbial ecological functions in the coastal western Antarctic Peninsula

Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbiology

Deborah K. Steinberg¹  Hugh W. Ducklow²  Rebecca Trinh²  Oscar M. Schofield³  Natalia Erazo⁴  Elizabeth Connors⁴  Srishti Dasarathy⁴  Jeff S. Bowman⁵  Avishek Dutta⁶ 

[1] Department of Biological Science, College of William & Mary, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, VA, United States;Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY, United States;Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, United States;Integrative Oceanography Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States;Integrative Oceanography Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States;Center for Microbiome Innovation, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States;Integrative Oceanography Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States;Department of Geology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, United States;Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia, Aiken, SC, United States;

关键词: metagenomics;    Antarctic microbiome;    Palmer LTER;    metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs);    microbial community function;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fmicb.2023.1168507

 received in 2023-02-17, accepted in 2023-04-25,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

The Antarctic marine environment is a dynamic ecosystem where microorganisms play an important role in key biogeochemical cycles. Despite the role that microbes play in this ecosystem, little is known about the genetic and metabolic diversity of Antarctic marine microbes. In this study we leveraged DNA samples collected by the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) project to sequence shotgun metagenomes of 48 key samples collected across the marine ecosystem of the western Antarctic Peninsula (wAP). We developed an in silico metagenomics pipeline (iMAGine) for processing metagenomic data and constructing metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), identifying a diverse genomic repertoire related to the carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen cycles. A novel analytical approach based on gene coverage was used to understand the differences in microbial community functions across depth and region. Our results showed that microbial community functions were partitioned based on depth. Bacterial members harbored diverse genes for carbohydrate transformation, indicating the availability of processes to convert complex carbons into simpler bioavailable forms. We generated 137 dereplicated MAGs giving us a new perspective on the role of prokaryotes in the coastal wAP. In particular, the presence of mixotrophic prokaryotes capable of autotrophic and heterotrophic lifestyles indicated a metabolically flexible community, which we hypothesize enables survival under rapidly changing conditions. Overall, the study identified key microbial community functions and created a valuable sequence library collection for future Antarctic genomics research.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Dutta, Connors, Trinh, Erazo, Dasarathy, Ducklow, Steinberg, Schofield and Bowman.