Seasonal changes in the abundance of bacterial genes related to dimethylsulfoniopropionate catabolism in seawater from Ofunato Bay revealed by metagenomic analysis

Abstract

Ofunato Bay is located in the northeastern Pacific Ocean area of Japan, and it has the highest biodiversity of marine organisms in the world, primarily due to tidal influences from the cold Oyashio and warm Kuroshio Currents. Our previous results from performing shotgun metagenomics indicated that Candidatus Pelagibacter ubique and Planktomarina temperata were the dominant bacteria (Reza et al., 2018a, 2018b). These bacteria are reportedly able to catabolize dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) produced from phytoplankton into dimethyl sulfide (DMS) or methanethiol (MeSH). This study was focused on seasonal changes in the abundances of bacterial genes (dddP, dmdA) related to DMSP catabolism in the seawater of Ofunato Bay by BLAST+ analysis using shotgun metagenomic datasets. We found seasonal changes among the Candidatus Pelagibacter ubique strains, including those of the HTCC1062 type and the Red Sea type. A good correlation was observed between the chlorophyll a concentrations and the abundances of the catabolic genes, suggesting that the bacteria directly interact with phytoplankton in the marine material cycle system and play important roles in producing DMS and MeSH from DMSP as signaling molecules for the possible formation of the scent of the tidewater or as fish attractants.

Microbial Diversity and Phage–Host Interactions in the Georgian Coastal Area of the Black Sea Revealed by Whole Genome Metagenomic Sequencing

“…We observed high abundance of Candidatus Pelagibacter in May compared to the September sample. Such changes in abundance may depend on different environmental factors, such as interactions with phytoplankton, availability of dissolved organic matter (DOM), grazing by eukaryotes, or predation by viruses [20,21]. Besides the SAR11 clade, we also found halophylic Alphaproteobacterium Maricaulis belonging to the Rhodobacteriales order, the bacteria described to be widely distributed in marine habitats and considered to be rapid surface colonizers in ocean waters [22].…”

Spatiotemporal distribution of bacterial dimethylsulfoniopropionate producing and catabolic genes in the Changjiang Estuary

“…Until now, no molecular studies had investigated DMSP production and cycling in estuarine environments. However, many studies have investigated DMSP catabolism via the analysis of microbial communities and their catabolic gene abundance, distribution and transcription in diverse marine samples (Howard et al ., 2008; Levine et al ., 2012; Kudo et al ., 2018; Liu et al ., 2018), including some focused on estuarine regions (Williams et al ., 2019; Han et al ., 2020).…”

Seasonal and annual changes in the microbial communities of Ofunato Bay, Japan, based on metagenomics

“…Pelagibacter depends on reduced sulphur compounds such as dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), which originate from phytoplankton 63 , 64 . Kudo et al 31 reported that a high abundance of the DMSP catabolic gene dmdA in Ca . Pelagibacter ubique HTCC1062 in Ofunto Bay were correlated with spring phytoplankton blooms.…”