Deep-sea in situ and laboratory proteomics provide insights into the sulfur metabolism characteristics of a novel deep-sea bacterium, Pseudodesulfovibrio serpens sp. nov.

ABSTRACT: Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) are ubiquitously distributed across various biospheres and play key roles in global sulfur and carbon cycles. However, few deep-sea SRB have been cultivated and studied in situ, limiting our understanding of the true metabolism of SRB in the deep biosphere. Here, we firstly clarified the high abundance of SRB in deep-sea sediments via the operational taxonomic units (OTU) sequencing analysis. We have successfully isolated a sulfate-reducing bacterium (strain zrk46) from a cold seep sediment, by using an enriched medium supplemented with sulfate. Our genomic, physiological and phylogenetic analyses indicate that strain zrk46 is a novel species, which we propose be named: Pseudodesulfovibrio serpens. Based on the combined results from growth assays and proteomic analyses, we found that supplementation with sulfate (SO42-), thiosulfate (S2O32-), or sulfite (SO32-) promoted the growth of strain zrk46 by facilitating energy production through the dissimilatory sulfate reduction with the auxiliary functions of heterodisulfide reductases, ferredoxins, and nitrate reduction associated proteins, which were coupled to the oxidation of environmental organic matter in both laboratory and deep-sea in situ conditions. Moreover, metatranscriptomic results have also confirmed the dissimilatory sulfate reduction of deep-sea SRB in in situ environment, which might be coupled to the methane oxidation of anaerobic methanotrophic archaea (ANME-2). Overall, these findings expand our understanding of deep-sea SRB, while highlighting their importance for deep-sea sulfur and carbon cycles.

INSTRUMENT(S):

ORGANISM(S): Environmental Samples <bacteria

SUBMITTER: sun lab sun lab  

LAB HEAD: Chaomin Sun

PROVIDER: PXD043318 | Pride | 2026-02-23

REPOSITORIES: Pride