Identification of enriched hyperthermophilic microbial communities from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent chimney under electrolithoautotrophic culture conditions.

ABSTRACT: Deep-sea hydrothermal vents are extreme and complex ecosystems based on a trophic chain. We are still unsure of the identities of the first colonizers of these environments and their metabolism, but they are thought to be (hyper)thermophilic autotrophs. Here we investigate whether the electric potential observed across hydrothermal chimneys could serve as an energy source for these first colonizers. Experiments were performed in a two-chamber microbial electrochemical system inoculated with deep-sea hydrothermal chimney samples, with a cathode as sole electron donor, CO₂ as sole carbon source, and nitrate, sulfate, or oxygen as electron acceptors. After a few days of culturing, all three experiments showed growth of electrotrophic biofilms consuming the electrons (directly or in

SUBMITTER: Pillot G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8292307 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature