Metatranscriptomic evidence of pervasive and diverse chemolithoautotrophy relevant to C, S, N and Fe cycling in a shallow alluvial aquifer.

ABSTRACT: Groundwater ecosystems are conventionally thought to be fueled by surface-derived allochthonous organic matter and dominated by heterotrophic microbes living under often-oligotrophic conditions. However, in a 2-month study of nitrate amendment to a perennially suboxic aquifer in Rifle (CO), strain-resolved metatranscriptomic analysis revealed pervasive and diverse chemolithoautotrophic bacterial activity relevant to C, S, N and Fe cycling. Before nitrate injection, anaerobic ammonia-oxidizing (anammox) bacteria accounted for 16% of overall microbial community gene expression, whereas during the nitrate injection, two other groups of chemolithoautotrophic bacteria collectively accounted for 80% of the metatranscriptome: (1) members of the Fe(II)-oxidizing Gallionellaceae family and (2) stra

SUBMITTER: Jewell TN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4989316 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature