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Microbial community structure and nitrogenase gene diversity of sediment from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent field on the Southwest Indian Ridge

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Abstract

A sediment sample was collected from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent field located at a depth of 2 951 m on the Southwest Indian Ridge. Phylogenetic analyses were performed on the prokaryotic community using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of the 16S rRNA and nifH genes. Within the Archaea, the dominant clones were from marine benthic group E (MBGE) and marine group I (MGI) belonging to the phyla Euryarchaeota and Thaumarchaeota, respectively. More than half of the bacterial clones belonged to the Proteobacteria, and most fell within the Gammaproteobacteria. No epsilonproteobacterial sequence was observed. Additional phyla were detected including the Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Planctomycetes, Acidobacteria, Nitrospirae, Chloroflexi, Chlorobi, Chlamydiae, Verrucomicrobia, and candidate divisions OD1, OP11, WS3 and TM6, confirming their existence in hydrothermal vent environments. The detection of nifH gene suggests that biological nitrogen fixation may occur in the hydrothermal vent field of the Southwest Indian Ridge. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that only Clusters I and III NifH were present. This is consistent with the phylogenetic analysis of the microbial 16S rRNA genes, indicating that Bacteria play the main role in nitrogen fixation in this hydrothermal vent environment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Marine Ecosystem and Biogeochemistry, Second Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Hangzhou, 310012, China

    Yuehong Wu, Chunsheng Wang & Xuewei Xu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Yi Cao

  3. College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Min Wu

  4. Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel

    Oren Aharon

  5. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel

    Oren Aharon

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  1. Yuehong Wu
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  2. Yi Cao
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  3. Chunsheng Wang
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  4. Min Wu
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Correspondence to Xuewei Xu.

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Foundation item: The China Ocean Mineral Resources R & D Association (COMRA) Special Foundation under contract No. DY125-15-R-03; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract Nos 41276173 and 41206104; the Scientific Research Fund of the Second Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration under contract No. JT1011.

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Wu, Y., Cao, Y., Wang, C. et al. Microbial community structure and nitrogenase gene diversity of sediment from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent field on the Southwest Indian Ridge. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 33, 94–104 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-014-0544-0

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