Wood-Ljungdahl pathway encoding anaerobes facilitate low-cost primary production in hypersaline sediments at Great Salt Lake, Utah.

ABSTRACT: Little is known of primary production in dark hypersaline ecosystems despite the prevalence of such environments on Earth today and throughout its geologic history. Here, we generated and analyzed metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) organized as operational taxonomic units (OTUs) from three depth intervals along a 30-cm sediment core from the north arm of Great Salt Lake, Utah. The sediments and associated porewaters were saturated with NaCl, exhibited redox gradients with depth, and harbored nitrogen-depleted organic carbon. Metabolic predictions of MAGs representing 36 total OTUs recovered from the core indicated that communities transitioned from aerobic and heterotrophic at the surface to anaerobic and autotrophic at depth. Dark CO2 fixation was detected in sediments and the primary mo

SUBMITTER: Shoemaker A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11287216 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature