Sulfate Alters the Competition Among Microbiome Members of Sediments Chronically Exposed to Asphalt.

ABSTRACT: Sulfate-reducing microorganisms (SRMs) often compete with methanogens for common substrates. Due to thermodynamic reasons, SRMs should outcompete methanogens in the presence of sulfate. However, many studies have documented coexistence of these microbial groups in natural environments, suggesting that thermodynamics alone cannot explain the interactions among them. In this study, we investigated how SRMs compete with the established methanogenic communities in sediment from a long-term, electron acceptor-depleted, asphalt-exposed ecosystem and how they affect the composition of the organic material. We hypothesized that, upon addition of sulfate, SRMs (i) outcompete the methanogenic communities and (ii) markedly contribute to transformations of the organic material. We sampled sediments fr

SUBMITTER: Michas A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7550536 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature