Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
© The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 8 (2017): 1114, doi:10.1038/s41467-017-01228-6.
Description:
Little is known about evolutionary drivers of microbial populations in the warm subseafloor of deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Here we reconstruct 73 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from two geochemically distinct vent fields in the Mid-Cayman Rise to investigate patterns of genomic variation within subseafloor populations. Low-abundance populations with high intra-population diversity coexist alongside high-abundance populations with low genomic diversity, with taxonomic differences in patterns of genomic variation between the mafic Piccard and ultramafic Von Damm vent fields. Populations from Piccard are significantly enriched in nonsynonymous mutations, suggesting stronger purifying selection in Von Damm relative to Piccard. Comparison of nine Sulfurovum MAGs reveals two high-coverage, low-diversity MAGs from Piccard enriched in unique genes related to the cellular membrane, suggesting these populations were subject to distinct evolutionary pressures that may correlate with genes related to nutrient uptake, biofilm formation, or viral invasion. These results are consistent with distinct evolutionary histories between geochemically different vent fields, with implications for understanding evolutionary processes in subseafloor microbial populations.
Description:
R.E.A. was supported by a NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship with the NASA Astrobiology Institute. This work was supported by a NASA Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets (ASTEP) grant NNX-327 09AB75G and a grant from Deep Carbon Observatory's Deep Life Initiative to J.A.H. and J.S.S., and the NSF Science and Technology Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI). Ship and vehicle time in 2012 was supported by the NSF-OCE grant OCE-1061863 to J.S.S.
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
