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标题：Geochemical transition zone powering microbial growth in subsurface sediments
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作者：Rui Zhao ; José M. Mogollón ; Sophie S. Abby 等
期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2020
卷号：117
期号：51
页码：32617-32626
DOI：10.1073/pnas.2005917117
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：No other environment hosts as many microbial cells as the marine sedimentary biosphere. While the majority of these cells are expected to be alive, they are speculated to be persisting in a state of maintenance without net growth due to extreme starvation. Here, we report evidence for in situ growth of anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing (anammox) bacteria in ∼80,000-y-old subsurface sediments from the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge. The growth is confined to the nitrate–ammonium transition zone (NATZ), a widespread geochemical transition zone where most of the upward ammonium flux from deep anoxic sediments is being consumed. In this zone the anammox bacteria abundances, assessed by quantification of marker genes, consistently displayed a four order of magnitude increase relative to adjacent layers in four cores. This subsurface cell increase coincides with a markedly higher power supply driven mainly by intensified anammox reaction rates, thereby providing a quantitative link between microbial proliferation and energy availability. The reconstructed draft genome of the dominant anammox bacterium showed an index of replication (iRep) of 1.32, suggesting that 32% of this population was actively replicating. The genome belongs to a Scalindua species which we name Candidatus Scalindua sediminis , so far exclusively found in marine sediments. It has the capacity to utilize urea and cyanate and a mixotrophic lifestyle. Our results demonstrate that specific microbial groups are not only able to survive unfavorable conditions over geological timescales, but can proliferate in situ when encountering ideal conditions with significant consequences for biogeochemical nitrogen cycling.
关键词：deep biosphere ; microbial in situ growth ; nitrogen cycle ; energy availability ; anammox