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Lookup NU author(s): Emeritus Professor Bernard Golding, Marta Drozdowska
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Marine subsurface environments such as deep-sea sediments, house abundant and diverse microbial communities that are believed to influence large-scale geochemical processes. These processes include the biotransformation and mineralization of numerous petroleum constituents. Thus, microbial communities in the Gulf of Mexico are thought to be responsible for the intrinsic bioremediation of crude oil released by the Deepwater Horizon (DM) oil spill. While hydrocarbon contamination is known to enrich for aerobic, oil-degrading bacteria in deep-seawater habitats, relatively little is known about the response of communities in deep-sea sediments, where low oxygen levels may hinder such a response. Here, we examined the hypothesis that increased hydrocarbon exposure results in an altered sediment microbial community structure that reflects the prospects for oil biodegradation under the prevailing conditions. We explore this hypothesis using metagenomic analysis and metabolite profiling of deep-sea sediment samples following the DWH oil spill. The presence of aerobic microbial communities and associated functional genes was consistent among all samples, whereas, a greater number of Deltaproteobacteria and anaerobic functional genes were found in sediments closest to the DWH blowout site. Metabolite profiling also revealed a greater number of putative metabolites in sediments surrounding the blowout zone relative to a background site located 127 km away. The mass spectral analysis of the putative metabolites revealed that alkylsuccinates remained below detection levels, but a homologous series of benzylsuccinates (with carbon chain lengths from 5 to 10) could be detected. Our findings suggest that increased exposure to hydrocarbons enriches for Deltaproteobacteria, which are known to be capable of anaerobic hydrocarbon metabolism. We also provide evidence for an active microbial community metabolizing aromatic hydrocarbons in deep-sea sediments of the Gulf of Mexico.
Author(s): Kimes NE, Callaghan AV, Aktas DF, Smith WL, Sunner J, Golding BT, Drozdowska M, Hazen TC, Suflita JM, Morris PJ
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Frontiers in Microbiology
Year: 2013
Volume: 4
Online publication date: 15/03/2013
Acceptance date: 21/02/2013
Date deposited: 18/09/2015
ISSN (print): 1664-302X
ISSN (electronic): 2235-2988
Publisher: Frontiers Research Foundation
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2013.00050
DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2013.00050
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