Abundant gut microorganisms constitute a complex microecosystem with the intestinal environment of the host, which plays a critical role in the adjustment of various physiological states of the organism. Sequencing and mass spectrometry data collected from intestinal samples of shrimp after virus infection helped to investigate the special function of the microecosystem and suggested that the gut microbiota has a functional potential in maintaining immune homeostasis of the host under environmental challenge.

Microorganisms are important sources for screening bioactive natural products. However, natural products from deep-sea microbes have not been extensively explored. In this study, the metabolites of bacteriophage GVE2 -infected (Geobacillus sp. E263 virus) thermophilic bacterium Geobacillus sp. E263, which was isolated from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent, were characterized. A novel quinoid compound, which had anti-tumor activity, was isolated from the phage-challenged thermophile. The chemical structure analysis showed that this novel quinoid compound was 2-amino-6-hydroxy-[1,4]-benzoquinone. The results indicated that 2-amino-6-hydroxy-[1,4]-benzoquinone and its two derivatives could trigger apoptosis of gastric cancer cells and breast cancer cells by inducing the accumulation of intracellular reactive oxygen species. Therefore, our study highlighted that the metabolites from the phage-challenged deep-sea microbes might be a kind of promising sources for anti-tumor drug discovery, because of the similarity of metabolic disorder between bacteriophage-infected microbes and tumor cells.

Summary Deep‐sea ecosystems, such as cold seeps and hydrothermal vents, have high biomass, even though they are located in the benthic zone, where no sunlight is present to provide energy for organism proliferation. Based on the coexistence of the reduced gases and chemoautotrophic microbes, it is inferred that the energy from the reduced gases supports the biocoenosis of deep‐sea ecosystems. However, there is no direct evidence to support this deduction. Here, we developed and placed a biocoenosis generator, a device that continuously seeped methane, on the 1000‐m deep‐sea floor of the South China Sea to artificially construct a deep‐sea ecosystem biocoenosis. The results showed that microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea, appeared in the biocoenosis generator first, followed by jellyfish and Gammaridea arthropods, indicating that a biocoenosis had been successfully constructed in the deep sea. Anaerobic methane‐oxidizing archaea, which shared characteristics with the archaea of natural deep‐sea cold seeps, acted as the first electron acceptors of the emitted methane; then, the energy in the electrons was transferred to downstream symbiotic archaea and bacteria and finally to animals. Nitrate‐reducing bacteria served as partners to complete anaerobic oxidation of methane process. Further analysis revealed that viruses coexisted with these organisms during the origin of the deep‐sea biocoenosis. Therefore, our study mimics a natural deep‐sea ecosystem and provides the direct evidence to show that the chemical energy of reduced organic molecules, such as methane, supports the biocoenosis of deep‐sea ecosystems.