Ancient Metabolisms of a Thermophilic Subseafloor Bacterium.

ABSTRACT: The ancient origins of metabolism may be rooted deep in oceanic crust, and these early metabolisms may have persisted in the habitable thermal anoxic aquifer where conditions remain similar to those when they first appeared. The Wood-Ljungdahl pathway for acetogenesis is a key early biosynthetic pathway with the potential to influence ocean chemistry and productivity, but its contemporary role in oceanic crust is not well established. Here, we describe the genome of a novel acetogen from a thermal suboceanic aquifer olivine biofilm in the basaltic crust of the Juan de Fuca Ridge (JdFR) whose genome suggests it may utilize an ancient chemosynthetic lifestyle. This organism encodes the genes for the complete canonical Wood-Ljungdahl pathway, but is potentially unable to use sulfate and certa

SUBMITTER: Smith AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8671834 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature