Contribution of Crenarchaeota and Bacteria to autotrophy in the North Atlantic interior

Author(s)
Marta M. Varela, Hendrik M. van Aken, Eva Sintes Elvelin, Thomas Reinthaler, Gerhard Herndl
Abstract

Marine Crenarchaeota are among the most abundant groups of prokaryotes in the ocean and recent reports suggest that they oxidize ammonia as an energy source and inorganic carbon as carbon source, while other studies indicate that Crenarchaeota use organic carbon and hence, live heterotrophically. We used catalysed reporter deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization (CARD-FISH) to determine the crenarchaeal and bacterial contribution to total prokaryotic abundance in the (sub) tropical Atlantic. Bacteria contributed similar to 50% to total prokaryotes throughout the water column. Marine Crenarchaeota Group I (MCGI) accounted for similar to 5% of the prokaryotes in subsurface waters (100 m depth) and between 10 and 20% in the oxygen minimum layer (250-500 m depth) and deep waters (North East Atlantic Deep Water). The fraction of both MCGI and Bacteria fixing inorganic carbon, determined by combining microautoradiography with CARD-FISH (MICRO-CARD-FISH), decreased with depth, ranging from similar to 30% in the oxygen minimum zone to <10% in the intermediate waters (Mediterranean Sea Outflow Water, Antarctic Intermediate Water). In the deeper water masses, however, MCGI were not taking up inorganic carbon. Using quantitative MICRO-CARD-FISH to determine autotrophy activity on a single cell level revealed that MCGI are incorporating inorganic carbon (0.002-0.1 fmol C cell(-1) day(-1)) at a significantly lower rate than Bacteria (0.01-0.6 fmol C cell(-1) day(-1)). Hence, it appears that MCGI contribute substantially less to autotrophy than Bacteria. Taking the stoichiometry of nitrification together with our findings suggests that MCGI might not dominate the ammonia oxidation step in the mesopelagic waters of the ocean to that extent as the reported dominance of archaeal over bacterial amoA would suggest.

Organisation(s)
External organisation(s)
Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research
Journal
Environmental Microbiology
Volume
13
Pages
1524-1533
No. of pages
10
ISSN
1462-2912
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1462-2920.2011.02457.x
Publication date
2011
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
106021 Marine biology
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 14 - Life Below Water
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/contribution-of-crenarchaeota-and-bacteria-to-autotrophy-in-the-north-atlantic-interior(4de84e4e-9efd-4bb4-baee-b74c797ff345).html