Microbial communities associated with geological horizons in coastal subseafloor sediments from the sea of okhotsk.

ABSTRACT: Microbial communities from a subseafloor sediment core from the southwestern Sea of Okhotsk were evaluated by performing both cultivation-dependent and cultivation-independent (molecular) analyses. The core, which extended 58.1 m below the seafloor, was composed of pelagic clays with several volcanic ash layers containing fine pumice grains. Direct cell counting and quantitative PCR analysis of archaeal and bacterial 16S rRNA gene fragments indicated that the bacterial populations in the ash layers were approximately 2 to 10 times larger than those in the clays. Partial sequences of 1,210 rRNA gene clones revealed that there were qualitative differences in the microbial communities from the two different types of layers. Two phylogenetically distinct archaeal assemblages in the Crenarchaeo

SUBMITTER: Inagaki F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC309994 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature