Nitrite-oxidizing bacteria adapted to low-oxygen conditions dominate nitrite oxidation in marine oxygen minimum zones.

ABSTRACT: Nitrite is a central molecule in the nitrogen cycle because nitrite oxidation to nitrate (an aerobic process) retains fixed nitrogen in a system and its reduction to dinitrogen gas (anaerobic) reduces the fixed nitrogen inventory. Despite its acknowledged requirement for oxygen, nitrite oxidation is observed in oxygen-depleted layers of the ocean's oxygen minimum zones (OMZs), challenging the current understanding of OMZ nitrogen cycling. Previous attempts to determine whether nitrite-oxidizing bacteria in the anoxic layer differ from known nitrite oxidizers in the open ocean were limited by cultivation difficulties and sequencing depth. Here, we construct 31 draft genomes of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria from global OMZs. The distribution of nitrite oxidation rates, abundance and expression

SUBMITTER: Fortin SG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11373643 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature