Featured Image courtesy Yannis Papanastasopoulos, Unsplash.
Authors: Aurèle Vuillemin, Sergio Vargas, Ömer K. Coskun, Robert Pockalny, Richard W. Murray, David C. Smith, Steven D’Hondt, William D. Orsi
If you, like me, imagine the seafloor to be inhabited by strange, mysterious creatures like vampire squids and goblin sharks, think again: bacteria continue to surprise us with their resilience in the oddest of environments. Scientists have detected microbes living in the mud and rocks on the seafloor, but we don’t know much about them. Are they alive? How do they get energy in such a nutrient-poor environment? Given the inhospitable conditions in the sub-seafloor, scientists have thought that most of these microbes were close to the energy limit for life, which is an estimate of the minimum amount of energy required to sustain life as we know it. For this reason, we’ve assumed that subseafloor microbes die faster than they grow because there simply isn’t enough energy in the deep sea to sustain life long-term.
To understand whether and how microbial life sustains itself under such harsh conditions, Aurèle Vuillemin and colleagues from Germany and the USA examined microbial communities in sea clay at a depth of 5,515 m in the North Atlantic Ocean. Scientists can estimate the age of an ocean sediment by measuring the rate at which sediment deposits on the floor, a number called the sedimentation rate. Using this method, they estimated that this clay sample was formed over 5 million years ago (Myr).
Surprisingly, they found that the number of microbes actually increased as they went deeper into the subseafloor until 10 mbsf (metres below sea floor), and then started to decrease at greater depths. They also found one bacterial group that increased from 5 to 40% of the total community as they went deeper: Candidatus Atribacteria, an uncultured bacterial group whose relatives have previously been identified in deep-sea sediments from other locations like the Ross Sea and both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. (Check out Figure 1 here for a snapshot of what Atribacteria may look like.)
To test whether Atribacteria were actively growing in the subseafloor or merely long-dead cells they had just discovered, the team measured the amount of RNA produced by these bacteria and discovered that Atribacteria had the highest rates of gene expression of all bacteria in this sediment, indicating that they were indeed metabolically active.
Further evidence that Atribacteria are actively growing in the subseafloor was provided by their gene expression profiles, which contained RNA from genes we know are involved in cell division (such as the FtsAEKQWZ, MreBC and RodA genes), which are critical to cellular growth and reproduction. The Atribacteria genomes also offer clues to how the organisms survived in such a nutrient-lean environment. They have genes that can produce enzymes to break down dead bacteria in the sediment and convert this necromass to energy, Atribacteria could also have a microcompartment in the cell that recycles toxic by-products of metabolism to help with conserving cellular energy. Perhaps these unusual metabolic activities are an evolutionary advantage that allow Atribacteria to survive in the subseafloor.
This new evidence shows that Atribacteria (and perhaps other ancient microbial lineages) can survive and grow in remote deep sea sediments. Bacteria cling tenaciously to life even in extreme environments, and digging deeper into sub-marine mud and its inhabitants may yield more surprises while helping us understand the limits of life.
Deep Sea Bacteria have Thrived for Millions of Years by Janani Hariharan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Picha iliyoonyeshwa kwa neema ya Yannis Papanastasopoulos, Unsplash. "Aurel Vuyer, Sergio Vargas, Omer K. Koskinen, Robert Pokalny, Richard W. Murray, David C. Smith, Steven D. Hurd, William D. Orsini, na wengineo, wanaandika: ""Ikiwa wewe, kama mimi, unafikiria sakafu ya bahari kuwa na viumbe wa ajabu, wa ajabu kama vile vampire squid na goblin sharks, fikiria tena: bakteria zinaendelea kutushangaza kwa uimara wao katika mazingira ya ajabu.""" Wanasayansi wamegundua viini vinavyoishi katika matope na miamba kwenye sakafu ya bahari, lakini hatujui mengi juu yao. Je, wao wako hai? Wanapataje nishati katika mazingira hayo yasiyo na virutubisho? Kwa kuzingatia hali mbaya ya chini ya bahari, wanasayansi walidhani kwamba wengi wa vimelea hivyo walikuwa karibu na kikomo cha nishati ya maisha, ambayo ni makadirio ya kiwango cha chini cha nishati inayohitajika kudumisha maisha kama tunavyoijua. Kwa sababu hii, tumedhani kwamba vimelea vya chini ya bahari hufa haraka kuliko vinavyoongezeka kwa sababu hakuna nishati ya kutosha katika bahari ya kina kirefu kudumisha maisha kwa muda mrefu. Ili kuelewa ikiwa na jinsi maisha ya vimelea yanavyojihifadhi chini ya hali ngumu kama hizo, Aurelie Vuylin na wenzake kutoka Ujerumani na Marekani walichunguza jamii za vimelea katika udongo wa bahari katika kina cha mita 5,515 katika Bahari ya Atlantiki Kaskazini. Wanasayansi wanaweza kukadiria umri wa mchanga wa bahari kwa kupima kiwango ambacho mchanga hujiweka kwenye sakafu, idadi inayoitwa kiwango cha mchanga. Kwa kutumia mbinu hii, walikadiria kwamba sampuli hii ya udongo iliundwa zaidi ya miaka milioni 5 iliyopita (Myr). Kwa kushangaza, idadi ya vimelea iliongezeka wakati zilipokuwa chini ya bahari hadi mita 10 mbsf (mita chini ya sakafu ya bahari), na kisha ikaanza kupungua kwa kina kikubwa. "Kama ilivyoelezwa hapo juu, ""Candidatus atribacterium"" ni aina ya bakteria ambayo inaonekana katika sediments ya bahari ya kina kama vile bahari ya Ross na bahari ya Pasifiki na Atlantiki." "Hii ni picha ya kwanza ya ""Atribacteria"" iliyochorwa." Ili kujua ikiwa bakteria ya Atriobacter ilikuwa ikikua kwa bidii chini ya bahari au ni seli tu zilizokufa kwa muda mrefu, timu hiyo ilipima kiasi cha RNA iliyotengenezwa na bakteria hizi na kugundua kuwa bakteria ya Atriobacter ilikuwa na viwango vya juu zaidi vya maonyesho ya jeni ya bakteria zote katika sediment hii, ikionyesha kuwa walikuwa na shughuli za kimetaboliki. "Ushahidi wa ziada kwamba ""Atribacteria"" ni kikamilifu kukua katika subseafuel ilitolewa na maelezo yao ya maonyesho ya jeni, ambayo ilikuwa na RNA kutoka kwa jeni tunajua ni kushiriki katika mgawanyiko wa seli (kama vile FTAQWZ, MRAB na RodA jeni), ambayo ni muhimu kwa ukuaji wa seli na uzazi." Genomu za bakteria hizo pia hutoa ufahamu kuhusu jinsi viumbe hao walivyookoka katika mazingira yasiyo na virutubisho. "Kama vile, kuna ""enzyme"" ambazo zinaweza kuharibu bakteria zilizokufa katika sediment na kugeuza necromass hii kuwa nishati, na pia kuna ""microcompartment"" katika seli ambayo inageuza bidhaa za sumu za kimetaboliki kusaidia kuhifadhi nishati ya seli." Labda shughuli hizi zisizo za kawaida za kimetaboliki ni faida ya mageuzi ambayo huruhusu Atribacteria kuishi chini ya bahari. Uthibitisho huu mpya unaonyesha kwamba bakteria za Atribacteria (na labda nasaba nyingine za kale za vimelea) zinaweza kuishi na kukua katika matope ya bahari ya kina kirefu. Bakteria hujifunga kwa nguvu kwa maisha hata katika mazingira mabaya, na kuchimba ndani zaidi ya matope ya chini ya bahari na wakazi wake inaweza kutoa mshangao zaidi wakati ikitusaidia kuelewa mipaka ya maisha. "Bacteria ya Bahari ya kina imesitawi kwa Milioni ya Miaka na Janani Hariharan ni leseni chini ya Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Leseni ya Kimataifa."""