Abundance of reverse tricarboxylic acid cycle genes in free-living microorganisms at deep-sea hydrothermal vents.

ABSTRACT: Since the discovery of hydrothermal vents more than 25 years ago, the Calvin-Bassham-Benson (Calvin) cycle has been considered the principal carbon fixation pathway in this microbe-based ecosystem. However, on the basis of recent molecular data of cultured free-living and noncultured episymbiotic members of the epsilon subdivision of Proteobacteria and earlier carbon isotope data of primary consumers, an alternative autotrophic pathway may predominate. Here, genetic and culture-based approaches demonstrated the abundance of reverse tricarboxylic acid cycle genes compared to the abundance of Calvin cycle genes in microbial communities from two geographically distinct deep-sea hydrothermal vents. PCR with degenerate primers for three key genes in the reverse tricarboxylic acid cycle and form

SUBMITTER: Campbell BJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC522104 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature