Nature and Extent of the Deep Biosphere

Colwell, Frederick S.; Dhondt, Steven

doi:10.2138/rmg.2013.75.17

Cited by 116 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 216 publications

(258 reference statements)

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“…The metabolic activities of long-buried microbes could be activated due to tectonic activity or if subsurface fluid flows deliver an infusion of new electron donors and acceptors. This hypothesis fits well with our finding that some fungi may possess a range of physiological adaptations for handling different physical and chemical stressors, while others might be microbial zombies (55). Complementary genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic analyses are needed to better understand the metabolic capabilities of deep-subseafloor fungi.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

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

Rédou

Navarri

Meslet‐Cladière

et al. 2015

Appl Environ Microbiol

153

117

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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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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

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

Rédou

Navarri

Meslet‐Cladière

et al. 2015

Appl Environ Microbiol

153

117

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“…In an effort to better understand the origin, evolution and extent of life, significant effort has gone into finding the limits of temperature, pressure, pH, salinity and other compositional and physical variables that define habitability (Rothschild and Mancinelli, 2001;Pikuta et al, 2007;Canganella and Wiegel, 2011;Colwell and D'Hondt, 2013;Picard and Daniel, 2013;Takai et al, 2014). However, one variable in particular-energy-has received much less attention (Amend and Teske, 2005;Shock and Holland, 2007;Hoehler and Jørgensen, 2013;LaRowe and Amend, 2015a, b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The energetics of anabolism in natural settings

LaRowe

Amend

2016

The ISME Journal

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The environmental conditions that describe an ecosystem define the amount of energy available to the resident organisms and the amount of energy required to build biomass. Here, we quantify the amount of energy required to make biomass as a function of temperature, pressure, redox state, the sources of C, N and S, cell mass and the time that an organism requires to double or replace its biomass. Specifically, these energetics are calculated from 0 to 125°C, 0.1 to 500 MPa and − 0.38 to +0.86 V using CO 2 , acetate or CH 4 for C, NO 3 À or NH 4 þ for N and SO 4 2À or HS − for S. The amounts of energy associated with synthesizing the biomolecules that make up a cell, which varies over 39 kJ (g cell), are then used to compute energy-based yield coefficients for a vast range of environmental conditions. Taken together, environmental variables and the range of cell sizes leads to a~4 orders of magnitude difference between the number of microbial cells that can be made from a Joule of Gibbs energy under the most (5.06 × 10 11 cells J − 1) and least (5.21 × 10 7 cells J − 1 ) ideal conditions. When doubling/replacement time is taken into account, the range of anabolism energies can expand even further.

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“…2) (Stevens and McKinley, 1995;Chapelle et al, 2002;Sleep et al, 2004;Lin et al, 2006;Chivian et al, 2008). A wide diversity of bacteria and archaea has been detected in the continental subsurface, with the majority of these appearing to be indigenous and adapted to subterranean life (Heim, 2011;Colwell and D'Hondt, 2013;Lau et al, 2014). These microbes are active, albeit at slow metabolic rates, and thus are important in the biogeochemical cycling of carbon (Head et al, 2003), nitrogen , and other biologically relevant, redox-sensitive elements .…”

Section: The Deep Biospherementioning

confidence: 99%