Deep-Subsurface Pressure Stimulates Metabolic Plasticity in Shale-Colonizing Halanaerobium spp.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial Halanaerobium strains become the dominant persisting microbial community member in produced fluids across geographically distinct hydraulically fractured shales. Halanaerobium is believed to be inadvertently introduced into this environment during the drilling and fracturing process and must therefore tolerate large changes in pressure, temperature, and salinity. Here, we used a Halanaerobium strain isolated from a natural gas well in the Utica Point Pleasant formation to investigate metabolic and physiological responses to growth under high-pressure subsurface conditions. Laboratory incubations confirmed the ability of Halanaerobium congolense strain WG8 to grow under pressures representative of deep shale formations (21 to 48 MPa). Under these condit

SUBMITTER: Booker AE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6544827 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature