Nutrient supplementation experiments with saltern microbial communities implicate utilization of DNA as a source of phosphorus.

ABSTRACT: All environments including hypersaline ones harbor measurable concentrations of dissolved extracellular DNA (eDNA) that can be utilized by microbes as a nutrient. However, it remains poorly understood which eDNA components are used, and who in a community utilizes it. For this study, we incubated a saltern microbial community with combinations of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and DNA, and tracked the community response in each microcosm treatment via 16S rRNA and rpoB gene sequencing. We show that microbial communities used DNA only as a phosphorus source, and provision of other sources of carbon and nitrogen was needed to exhibit a substantial growth. The taxonomic composition of eDNA in the water column changed with the availability of inorganic phosphorus or supplied DNA, hinting at pre

SUBMITTER: Hua Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8443641 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature