The metatranscriptome of a deep-sea hydrothermal plume is dominated by water column methanotrophs and lithotrophs.

ABSTRACT: Microorganisms mediate geochemical processes in deep-sea hydrothermal vent plumes, which are a conduit for transfer of elements and energy from the subsurface to the oceans. Despite this important microbial influence on marine geochemistry, the ecology and activity of microbial communities in hydrothermal plumes is largely unexplored. Here, we use a coordinated metagenomic and metatranscriptomic approach to compare microbial communities in Guaymas Basin hydrothermal plumes to background waters above the plume and in the adjacent Carmen Basin. Despite marked increases in plume total RNA concentrations (3-4 times) and microbially mediated manganese oxidation rates (15-125 times), plume and background metatranscriptomes were dominated by the same groups of methanotrophs and chemolithoautotrop

SUBMITTER: Lesniewski RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3504965 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature