Diversity of Archaea in marine sediments from Skan Bay, Alaska, including cultivated methanogens, and description of Methanogenium boonei sp. nov.

ABSTRACT: Methanogenesis in cold marine sediments is a globally important process leading to methane hydrate deposits, cold seeps, physical instability of sediment, and atmospheric methane emissions. We employed a multidisciplinary approach that combined culture-dependent and -independent analyses with geochemical measurements in the sediments of Skan Bay, Alaska (53 degrees N, 167 degrees W), to investigate methanogenesis there. Cultivation-independent analyses of the archaeal community revealed that uncultivated microbes of the kingdoms Euryarchaeota and Crenarchaeota are present at Skan Bay and that methanogens constituted a small proportion of the archaeal community. Methanogens were cultivated from depths of 0 to 60 cm in the sediments, and several strains related to the orders Methanomicrobial

SUBMITTER: Kendall MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1796967 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature