The archaeal lipidome in estuarine sediment dominated by members of the Miscellaneous Crenarchaeotal Group.
The anoxic sediments of the White Oak River estuary comprise a distinctive sulfate-methane transition zone (SMTZ) and natural enrichment of the archaea affiliated with the Miscellaneous Crenarchaeotal Group (MCG). Archaeal biphytanes were generally depleted in (13) C, with δ(13) C values being less than -35‰, indicative of production by active sedimentary archaeal populations. Multivariate analysis of the downcore distributions of 63 lipid biomarkers identified three major groups of lipids that were enriched in the surface, SMTZ or subsurface depths. Intact polar lipids with phosphatidylglycerol headgroups and glycerol dibiphytanyl glycerol tetraethers containing one, two or three cyclopentane rings were enriched at the base of the SMTZ and likely represent the accumulated product of a small but active ANME-1 community. The recently identified butanetriol dibiphytanyl glycerol tetraethers (BDGT), which increased relatively to other lipids with depth, were correlated with the relative abundance of MCG in archaeal 16S rRNA clone libraries, and were (13) C depleted throughout the depth profile, suggesting BDGT lipids as putative biomarkers of an MCG community that may either be autotrophic or feeding on (13) C-depleted organic substrates transported by porewater.
MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, Department of Geosciences, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
Travis B
TB
Meador
MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, Department of Geosciences, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
Marshall
M
Bowles
MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, Department of Geosciences, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.|Department of Marine Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Cassandre S
CS
Lazar
MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, Department of Geosciences, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
Chun
C
Zhu
Department of Marine Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Andreas
A
Teske
MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, Department of Geosciences, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
Kai-Uwe
KU
Hinrichs
D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D000440:Butanols / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D019615:Crenarchaeota / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D019641:DNA, Archaeal / Q000235:genetics; D063366:Estuaries; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000382:microbiology*; D050356:Lipid Metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D008697:Methane / Q000378:metabolism; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D013431:Sulfates / Q000378:metabolism
D015415:Biomarkers; D000440:Butanols; D019641:DNA, Archaeal; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D013431:Sulfates; D008697:Methane