title: Metagenomic analysis of sediments under seaports influence in the Equatorial Atlantic Ocean.
abstract: Maritime ports are anthropogenic interventions capable of causing serious alterations in coastal ecosystems. In this study, we examined the benthic microbial diversity and community structure under the influence of two maritime ports, Mucuripe (MUC) and Pecém (PEC), at Equatorial Atlantic Ocean in Northeast Brazil. Those seaports differ in architecture, time of functioning, cargo handling and contamination. The microbiomes from MUC and PEC were also compared in silico to 11 other globally distributed marine microbiomes. The comparative analysis of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) retrieved by PCR-DGGE showed that MUC presents greater richness and β diversity of Bacteria and Archaea than PEC. In line with these results, metagenomic analysis showed that MUC and PEC benthic microbial communities share the main common bacterial phyla found in coastal environments, although can be distinguish by greater abundance of Cyanobacteria in MUC and Deltaproteobacteria in PEC. Both ports differed in Archaea composition, being PEC port sediments dominated by Thaumarchaeota. The microbiomes showed little divergence in their potential metabolic pathways, although shifts on the microbial taxonomic signatures involved in nitrogen and sulphur metabolic pathways were observed. The comparative analysis of different benthic marine metagenomes from Brazil, Australia and Mexico grouped them by the geographic location rather than by the type of ecosystem, although at phylum level seaport sediments share a core microbiome constituted by Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Actinobacteria, Tenericuteres, Firmicutes, Bacteriodetes and Euryarchaeota. Our results suggest that multiple physical and chemical factors acting on sediments as a result of at least 60years of port operation play a role in shaping the benthic microbial communities at taxonomic level, but not at functional level.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciências do Mar, Av. Abolição, 3207, 60170-151 Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil; Laboratório de Ecologia Microbiana e Biotecnologia, Departamento de Biologia, Bloco 909, Centro de Ciências, Campus do Pici, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Av. Humberto Monte, 2775, 60440-554 Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil.
authors.forename: Tallita Cruz Lopes
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Tavares
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Ecologia Microbiana e Biotecnologia, Departamento de Biologia, Bloco 909, Centro de Ciências, Campus do Pici, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Av. Humberto Monte, 2775, 60440-554 Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil.
authors.forename: Leonardo Ribeiro Oliveira
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Normando
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Bioinformática, Unidade de Genômica Computacional Darcy Fontoura de Almeida, Laboratório Nacional de Computação Científica, 25651-075, Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ana Tereza Ribeiro
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: de Vasconcelos
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Bioinformática, Unidade de Genômica Computacional Darcy Fontoura de Almeida, Laboratório Nacional de Computação Científica, 25651-075, Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Alexandra Lehmkuhl
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Gerber
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biologia Celular e Genética, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, 59072-970 Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.
authors.forename: Lucymara Fassarella
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Agnez-Lima
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciências do Mar, Av. Abolição, 3207, 60170-151 Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil; Laboratório de Ecologia Microbiana e Biotecnologia, Departamento de Biologia, Bloco 909, Centro de Ciências, Campus do Pici, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Av. Humberto Monte, 2775, 60440-554 Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. Electronic address: vmmmelo@ufc.br.
authors.forename: Vânia Maria Maciel
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Melo
mesh_terms: D001105:Archaea / Q000235:genetics; D001267:Atlantic Ocean; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics; D044822:Biodiversity; D020564:Deltaproteobacteria; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry / Q000382:microbiology*; D054892:Metagenome; D056186:Metagenomics; D064307:Microbiota; D020560:Proteobacteria; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D012623:Seawater / Q000382:microbiology; D014871:Water Microbiology
chemical_list: D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
keywords: Archaea; Bacteria; Marine sediments; Microbiomes; Pyrosequencing; Seaports