Environmental genomics reveals a single-species ecosystem deep within Earth.
Science, 2008/10/10;322(5899):275-8.
Chivian D[1], Brodie EL, Alm EJ, Culley DE, Dehal PS, DeSantis TZ, Gihring TM, Lapidus A, Lin LH, Lowry SR, Moser DP, Richardson PM, Southam G, Wanger G, Pratt LM, Andersen GL, Hazen TC, Brockman FJ, Arkin AP, Onstott TC
Affiliations
PMID: 18845759DOI: 10.1126/science.1155495
Impact factor: 63.714
Abstract
DNA from low-biodiversity fracture water collected at 2.8-kilometer depth in a South African gold mine was sequenced and assembled into a single, complete genome. This bacterium, Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator, composes >99.9% of the microorganisms inhabiting the fluid phase of this particular fracture. Its genome indicates a motile, sporulating, sulfate-reducing, chemoautotrophic thermophile that can fix its own nitrogen and carbon by using machinery shared with archaea. Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator is capable of an independent life-style well suited to long-term isolation from the photosphere deep within Earth's crust and offers an example of a natural ecosystem that appears to have its biological component entirely encoded within a single genome.
MeSH terms
Ammonia; Carbon; Ecosystem; Genes, Bacterial; Genome, Bacterial; Genomics; Gold; Mining; Molecular Sequence Data; Movement; Oxidation-Reduction; Peptococcaceae; Phylogeny; Sequence Analysis, DNA; South Africa; Spores, Bacterial; Sulfates; Temperature; Water Microbiology
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