A metagenomic insight into freshwater methane-utilizing communities and evidence for cooperation between theMethylococcaceaeand theMethylophilaceae
Open Access
- 19 February 2013
- Vol. 1, e23
- https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.23
Abstract
We investigated microbial communities active in methane oxidation in lake sediment at different oxygen tensions and their response to the addition of nitrate, via stable isotope probing combined with deep metagenomic sequencing. Communities from a total of four manipulated microcosms were analyzed, supplied with 13C-methane in, respectively, ambient air, ambient air with the addition of nitrate, nitrogen atmosphere and nitrogen atmosphere with the addition of nitrate, and these were compared to the community from an unamended sediment sample. We found that the major group involved in methane oxidation in both aerobic and microaerobic conditions were members of the family Methylococcaceae, dominated by species of the genus Methylobacter, and these were stimulated by nitrate in aerobic but not microaerobic conditions. In aerobic conditions, we also noted a pronounced response to both methane and nitrate by members of the family Methylophilaceae that are non-methane-oxidizing methylotrophs, and predominantly by the members of the genus Methylotenera. The relevant abundances of the Methylococcaceae and the Methylophilaceae and their coordinated response to methane and nitrate suggest that these species may be engaged in cooperative behavior, the nature of which remains unknown.Keywords
This publication has 40 references indexed in Scilit:
- IMG: the integrated microbial genomes database and comparative analysis systemNucleic Acids Research, 2011
- Genome Sequence of Methyloversatilis universalisFAM5 T , a Methylotrophic Representative of the Order RhodocyclalesJournal of Bacteriology, 2011
- Genomes of Three Methylotrophs from a Single Niche Reveal the Genetic and Metabolic Divergence of the MethylophilaceaeJournal of Bacteriology, 2011
- Methylotrophy in a Lake: from Metagenomics to Single-Organism PhysiologyApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2011
- Genome Sequence of the Methanotrophic Alphaproteobacterium Methylocystis sp. Strain Rockwell (ATCC 49242)Journal of Bacteriology, 2011
- Genome Sequence of the Obligate Methanotroph Methylosinus trichosporium Strain OB3bJournal of Bacteriology, 2010
- Anaerobic Oxidation of Methane: Progress with an Unknown ProcessAnnual Review of Microbiology, 2009
- Genome of Methylobacillus flagellatus , Molecular Basis for Obligate Methylotrophy, and Polyphyletic Origin of MethylotrophyJournal of Bacteriology, 2007
- Methane emissions from terrestrial plants under aerobic conditionsNature, 2006
- Genomic Insights into Methanotrophy: The Complete Genome Sequence of Methylococcus capsulatus (Bath)PLoS Biology, 2004