title: Metagenomics of hydrocarbon resource environments indicates aerobic taxa and genes to be unexpectedly common.
abstract: Oil in subsurface reservoirs is biodegraded by resident microbial communities. Water-mediated, anaerobic conversion of hydrocarbons to methane and CO2, catalyzed by syntrophic bacteria and methanogenic archaea, is thought to be one of the dominant processes. We compared 160 microbial community compositions in ten hydrocarbon resource environments (HREs) and sequenced twelve metagenomes to characterize their metabolic potential. Although anaerobic communities were common, cores from oil sands and coal beds had unexpectedly high proportions of aerobic hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria. Likewise, most metagenomes had high proportions of genes for enzymes involved in aerobic hydrocarbon metabolism. Hence, although HREs may have been strictly anaerobic and typically methanogenic for much of their history, this may not hold today for coal beds and for the Alberta oil sands, one of the largest remaining oil reservoirs in the world. This finding may influence strategies to recover energy or chemicals from these HREs by in situ microbial processes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary , Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada.
authors.forename: Dongshan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: An
authors.forename: Sean M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Caffrey
authors.forename: Jung
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Soh
authors.forename: Akhil
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Agrawal
authors.forename: Damon
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Budwill
authors.forename: Xiaoli
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Peter F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Dunfield
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Foght
authors.forename: Lisa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Gieg
authors.forename: Steven J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Hallam
authors.forename: Niels W
authors.initials: NW
authors.lastname: Hanson
authors.forename: Zhiguo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Thomas R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Jack
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Klassen
authors.forename: Kishori M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Konwar
authors.forename: Eugene
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kuatsjah
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Larter
authors.forename: Verlyn
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Leopatra
authors.forename: Camilla L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Nesbø
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Oldenburg
authors.forename: Antoine P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Pagé
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ramos-Padron
authors.forename: Fauziah F
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: Rochman
authors.forename: Alireeza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saidi-Mehrabad
authors.forename: Christoph W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Sensen
authors.forename: Payal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sipahimalani
authors.forename: Young C
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Gregor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wolbring
authors.forename: Man-Ling
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Gerrit
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Voordouw
mesh_terms: D000332:Aerobiosis; D000416:Alberta; D001105:Archaea / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D019766:Genes, Archaeal; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D006838:Hydrocarbons / Q000378:metabolism; D056186:Metagenomics; D061329:Oil and Gas Fields / Q000382:microbiology*; D019642:RNA, Archaeal / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D012329:RNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D006838:Hydrocarbons; D019642:RNA, Archaeal; D012329:RNA, Bacterial; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
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