Autotrophy as a predominant mode of carbon fixation in anaerobic methane-oxidizing microbial communities

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Nov 20;109(47):19321-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1208795109. Epub 2012 Nov 5.

Abstract

The methane-rich, hydrothermally heated sediments of the Guaymas Basin are inhabited by thermophilic microorganisms, including anaerobic methane-oxidizing archaea (mainly ANME-1) and sulfate-reducing bacteria (e.g., HotSeep-1 cluster). We studied the microbial carbon flow in ANME-1/ HotSeep-1 enrichments in stable-isotope-probing experiments with and without methane. The relative incorporation of (13)C from either dissolved inorganic carbon or methane into lipids revealed that methane-oxidizing archaea assimilated primarily inorganic carbon. This assimilation is strongly accelerated in the presence of methane. Experiments with simultaneous amendments of both (13)C-labeled dissolved inorganic carbon and deuterated water provided further insights into production rates of individual lipids derived from members of the methane-oxidizing community as well as their carbon sources used for lipid biosynthesis. In the presence of methane, all prominent lipids carried a dual isotopic signal indicative of their origin from primarily autotrophic microbes. In the absence of methane, archaeal lipid production ceased and bacterial lipid production dropped by 90%; the lipids produced by the residual fraction of the metabolically active bacterial community predominantly carried a heterotrophic signal. Collectively our results strongly suggest that the studied ANME-1 archaea oxidize methane but assimilate inorganic carbon and should thus be classified as methane-oxidizing chemoorganoautotrophs.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Anaerobiosis
  • Autotrophic Processes / physiology*
  • Bacteria / metabolism*
  • Biota*
  • Carbon / metabolism
  • Carbon Cycle / physiology*
  • Carbon Isotopes
  • Isotope Labeling
  • Lipid Metabolism
  • Methane / metabolism*
  • Mexico
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Oxidation-Reduction

Substances

  • Carbon Isotopes
  • Carbon
  • Methane

Associated data

  • GENBANK/FR682479
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  • GENBANK/HE817766
  • GENBANK/HE817767