Anaerobic degradation of organic carbon supports uncultured microbial populations in estuarine sediments.

ABSTRACT: A large proportion of prokaryotic microbes in marine sediments remains uncultured, hindering our understanding of their ecological functions and metabolic features. Recent environmental metagenomic studies suggested that many of these uncultured microbes contribute to the degradation of organic matter, accompanied by acetogenesis, but the supporting experimental evidence is limited. Estuarine sediments were incubated with different types of organic matters under anaerobic conditions, and the increase of uncultured bacterial populations was monitored. We found that (1) lignin stimulated the increase of uncultured bacteria within the class Dehalococcoidia. Their ability to metabolize lignin was further supported by the presence of genes associated with a nearly complete degradation pathway o

SUBMITTER: Yu T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10116835 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature