Environmental Genomics Reveals a Single-Species Ecosystem Deep Within Earth
Dylan C. Chiviana b c d e✉, Eoin Brodiea b c d e, Eric J. Alma b c d e, David E. Culleya b c d e, Paramvir Dehala b c d e, Todd Z. DeSantisa b c d e, Thomas M. Gihringa b c d e, Alla L Lapidusa b c d e f, Li‐Hung Lina b c d e, Stephen R. Lowrya b c d e f, Duane P. Mosera b c d e g, Paul M. Richardsona b c d e f, Gordon Southama b c d e, Greg Wangera b c d e, Lisa M. Pratta b c d e h i, Gary L. Andersena b c d e, Terry Clyde Hazena b c d e i, Fred J. Brockmana b c d e, Adam P. Arkina b c d e, T. C. Onstotta b c d e i
- aDepartments of Biological and Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- bEarth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- cEnergy and Efficiency Technology Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99352, USA
- dPhysical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- eVirtual Institute for Microbial Stress and Survival, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- fGenomic Technology Program, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genomics Institute, Berkeley, CA 94598, USA
- gDivision of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Desert Research Institute, Las Vegas, NV 89119, USA
- hDepartment of Geological Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
- iIndiana Princeton Tennessee Astrobiology Initiative (IPTAI), NASA Astrobiology Institute, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
- ✉Corresponding author
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Abstract
DNA from low-biodiversity fracture water collected at 2.8-kilometer depth in a South African gold mine was sequenced and assembled into a single, complete genome. This bacterium, Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator, composes >99.9% of the microorganisms inhabiting the fluid phase of this particular fracture. Its genome indicates a motile, sporulating, sulfate-reducing, chemoautotrophic thermophile that can fix its own nitrogen and carbon by using machinery shared with archaea. Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator is capable of an independent life-style well suited to long-term isolation from the photosphere deep within Earth's crust and offers an example of a natural ecosystem that appears to have its biological component entirely encoded within a single genome.
TL;DRDNA from low-biodiversity fracture water collected at 2.8-kilometer depth in a South African gold mine was sequenced and assembled into a single, complete genome that indicates a motile, sporulating, sulfate-reducing, chemoautotrophic thermophile that can fix its own nitrogen and carbon by using machinery shared with archaea. (Semantic Scholar)