Microorganisms persist at record depths in the subseafloor of the Canterbury Basin

Ciobanu, Maria; Burgaud, Gaëtan; Dufresne, Alexis; Breuker, Anja; Rédou, Vanessa; Maamar, Sarah Ben; Gaboyer, F.; Vandenabeele-Trambouze, O.; Lipp, Julius S.; Schippers, Axel; Vandenkoornhuyse, Philippe; Barbier, Georges; Jebbar, Mohamed; Godfroy, Anne; Alain, Karine

doi:10.1038/ismej.2013.250

Cited by 94 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…To date, within subseafloor sediments, fungi have been identified from a few centimeters below the seafloor (5) down to 1,740 m below the seafloor (mbsf) (15), but we are still eager to assess whether they persist only as vegetative spores or play an active role(s) in biogeochemical cycling. Recent metatranscriptomic analyses suggest that fungi, while occurring in lower abundance than Bacteria and Archaea, possess the ability to degrade a variety of organic substrates in deep-subseafloor sediments (13).…”

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confidence: 99%

Species Richness and Adaptation of Marine Fungi from Deep-Subseafloor Sediments

Rédou

Navarri

Meslet‐Cladière

et al. 2015

Appl Environ Microbiol

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153

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The fungal kingdom is replete with unique adaptive capacities that allow fungi to colonize a wide variety of habitats, ranging from marine habitats to freshwater and terrestrial habitats. The diversity, importance, and ecological roles of marine fungi have recently been highlighted in deep-subsurface sediments using molecular methods. Fungi in the deep-marine subsurface may be specifically adapted to life in the deep biosphere, but this can be demonstrated only using culture-based analyses. In this study, we investigated culturable fungal communities from a record-depth sediment core sampled from the Canterbury Basin (New Zealand) with the aim to reveal endemic or ubiquist adapted isolates playing a significant ecological role(s). About 200 filamentous fungi (68%) and yeasts (32%) were isolated. Fungal isolates were affiliated with the phyla Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, including 21 genera. Screening for genes involved in secondary metabolite synthesis also revealed their bioactive compound synthesis potential. Our results provide evidence that deep-subsurface fungal communities are able to survive, adapt, grow, and interact with other microbial communities and highlight that the deep-sediment habitat is another ecological niche for fungi.

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confidence: 99%

Species Richness and Adaptation of Marine Fungi from Deep-Subseafloor Sediments

Rédou

Navarri

Meslet‐Cladière

et al. 2015

Appl Environ Microbiol

Self Cite

153

117

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“…For example, Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 329 studied the influence of energy limitation on subseafloor microbial communities in the South Pacific Gyre, where very low concentrations of sedimentary organic matter and its refractory nature strongly limit microbial life and result in aerobic subseafloor sedimentary ecosystems with low cell densities of 10 3 -10 4 cells/cm 3 throughout the sediment column (D'Hondt, Inagaki, Alvarez Zarikian, and the Expedition 329 Scientists, 2011;D'Hondt et al, 2015). Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expeditions 317 (Canterbury Basin) and 337 (Shimokita Coalbed Biosphere) studied microbial communities in extremely deep sediment (2000 and 2500 mbsf, respectively) (Ciobanu et al, 2014;Inagaki et al, 2015). Although both expeditions presented strong evidence for the presence of microbial life throughout the cored sedimentary sequences, Expedition 337 documented an abrupt decrease in microbial cell concentration deeper than ~1500 mbsf, to levels that are drastically lower than predicted by extrapolation of the global regression line cf.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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2017

Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program

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International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 370 explored the limits of the biosphere in the deep subseafloor where temperature exceeds the known temperature maximum of microbial life (~120°C) at the sediment/basement interface ~1.2 km below the seafloor. Site C0023 is located in the protothrust zone in the Nankai Trough off Cape Muroto at a water depth of 4776 m, in the vicinity of Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Sites 808 and 1174. In 2000, ODP Leg 190 revealed the presence of microbial cells at Site 1174 to a depth of ~600 meters below seafloor (mbsf ), which corresponds to an estimated temperature of ~70°C, and reliably identified a single zone of elevated cell concentrations just above the décollement at around 800 mbsf, where temperature presumably reached 90°C; no cell count data was reported for other sediment layers in the 70°-120°C range because the detection limit of manual cell counting for low-biomass samples was not low enough. With the establishment of Site C0023, we aimed to detect and investigate the presence or absence of life and biological processes at the biotic-abiotic transition utilizing unprecedented analytical sensitivity and precision. Expedition 370 was the first expedition dedicated to subseafloor microbiology that achieved time-critical processing and analyses of deep biosphere samples, conducting simultaneous shipboard and shore-based investigations.Our primary objective during Expedition 370 was to study the relationship between the deep subseafloor biosphere and temperature. We comprehensively studied the controls on biomass, activity, and diversity of microbial communities in a subseafloor environment where temperatures increase from ~2°C at the seafloor tõ 120°C and thus likely encompasses the biotic-abiotic transition zone. This included investigating whether the supply of fluids containing thermogenic and/or geogenic nutrient and energy substrates may support subseafloor microbial communities in the Nankai accretionary complex. To address these primary scientific objectives and questions, we penetrated 1180 m and recovered 112 cores of sediment and across the sediment/basalt interface. More than 13,000 samples were collected, and selected samples were transferred to the Kochi Core Center by helicopter for simultaneous microbiological sampling and analysis in laboratories with a superclean environment. In addition to microbiological measurements, we determined the geochemical, geophysical, and hydrogeological characteristics of the sediment and the underlying basement and installed a 13-thermistor sensor borehole temperature observatory into the borehole at Site C0023.

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“…For example, Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 329 studied the influence of energy limitation on subseafloor microbial communities in the South Pacific Gyre, where very low concentrations of sedimentary organic matter and its refractory nature strongly limit microbial life and result in aerobic subseafloor sedimentary ecosystems with low cell densities at 10 3 -10 4 cells/cm 3 throughout the sediment column (D'Hondt, Inagaki, Alvarez Zarikian, and the Expedition 329 Scientists, 2011;D'Hondt et al, 2015). Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expeditions 317 (Canterbury Basin) and 337 (Shimokita Coalbed Biosphere) studied microbial communities in extremely deeply buried sediment at depths to 2000 and 2500 mbsf, respectively (Ciobanu et al, 2014;Inagaki et al, 2015). Whereas both expeditions presented strong evidence for the presence of microbial life throughout the cored sedimentary sequence, Expedition 337 documented an abrupt decrease in microbial cell concentration at subseafloor depths deeper than ~1500 mbsf to levels that are drastically lower than predicted by extrapolation of the global regression line cf.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%