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Dominance of green sulfur bacteria in the chemocline of the meromictic Lake Suigetsu, Japan, as revealed by dissimilatory sulfite reductase gene analysis

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Abstract

This study investigated the spatiotemporal abundance and diversity of the α-subunit of the dissimilatory sulfite reductase gene (dsrA) in the meromictic Lake Suigetsu for assessing the sulfur-oxidizing bacterial community. The density of dsrA in the chemocline reached up to 3.1 × 106 copies ml−1 in summer by means of quantitative real-time PCR and it was generally higher than deeper layers. Most of the dsrA clones sequenced were related to green sulfur bacteria such as Chlorobium phaeovibrioides, C. limicola, and C. luteolum. Below the chemocline of the lake, we also detected other dsrA clones related to the purple sulfur bacterium Halochromatium salexigens and some branching lineages of diverse sequences that were related to chemotrophic sulfur bacterial species such as Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense, Candidatus Ruthia magnifica, and Candidatus Thiobios zoothamnicoli. The abundance and community compositions of sulfur-oxidizing bacteria changed depending on the water depth and season. This study indicated that the green sulfur bacteria dominated among sulfur-oxidizing bacterial population in the chemocline of Lake Suigetsu and that certain abiotic environmental variables were important factors that determined sulfur bacterial abundance and community structure.

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Acknowledgments

We thank S. Yoshikawa and Y. Takao of Fukui Prefectural University, S. Nakano of Kyoto University, and K. Fujita of Ehime University for their assistance during field sampling. We also gratefully acknowledge useful comments by anonymous reviewers and the editor. This study was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and Fukui Prefectural Fund for the Promotion of Science to RK.

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  1. Takafumi Kataoka

    Present address: Center for Marine Environmental Studies (CMES), Ehime University, Matsuyama, Ehime, 790-8577, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marine Bioscience, Fukui Prefectural University, Obama, Fukui, 917-0003, Japan

    Yumi Mori, Takafumi Kataoka, Takahiko Okamura & Ryuji Kondo

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  1. Yumi Mori
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  2. Takafumi Kataoka
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  4. Ryuji Kondo
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Correspondence to Ryuji Kondo.

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Communicated by Theo Hansen.

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Mori, Y., Kataoka, T., Okamura, T. et al. Dominance of green sulfur bacteria in the chemocline of the meromictic Lake Suigetsu, Japan, as revealed by dissimilatory sulfite reductase gene analysis. Arch Microbiol 195, 303–312 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-013-0879-5

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