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Gammaproteobacteria as a Possible Source of Eicosapentaenoic Acid in Anoxic Intertidal Sediments

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Abstract

Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; n-20:5ω3) was found to be a constituent of phospholipids in three mesophilic strains of Gammaproteobacteria, which were isolated from anoxic most probable number series prepared with sediments from an intertidal flat of the German North Sea coast. Their partial 16S rRNA gene sequences identified the isolates as close relatives of Shewanella colwelliana, Vibrio splendidus, and Photobacterium lipolyticum. So far, eicosapentaenoic acid has mainly been reported to occur in eukaryotes and some piezophilic or psychrophilic bacteria. With decreasing temperature, relative contents of EPA (up to 14% of total fatty acids) increased in all strains. Additionally, Shewanella and Vibrio spp. showed a significant increase in monounsaturated fatty acids with lower growth temperature. Analysis of the phospholipid compositions revealed that EPA was present in all three major phospholipid types, namely, phosphatidyl glycerol (PG), cardiolipin and phosphatidyl ethanolamine (PE). However, EPA was enriched in PG and cardiolipin relative to PE. In the tidal flat sediments from which the isolates were obtained, substantial amounts of EPA-containing PG were detected, whereas other typical microeukaryotic phospholipids—being also a possible source of EPA—were abundant at the sediment surface but were present in clearly lower amounts in the anoxic layers beneath 5 cm depth. Therefore, the EPA-containing PG species in the deeper layers in these sediments may indicate the presence of Gammaproteobacteria closely related to the isolates. These bacteria appear to be an important source of EPA in buried, anoxic sediments beneath the layers harboring significant populations of benthic eukaryotes.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the technical assistance by Dipl.-Ing. B. Kopke and would like to thank John K. Volkman for helpful discussion in the forefront of this paper. We thank six anonymous referees for their constructive comments and support. This work is a part of the research group on “BioGeoChemistry of Tidal Flats” and was funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG grant no. RU 458/33).

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  1. Institute of Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, P.O. Box 2503, 26111, Oldenburg, Germany

    Elke Freese, Heike Rütters, Jürgen Köster, Jürgen Rullkötter & Henrik Sass

  2. School of Earth, Ocean and Planetary Sciences, Cardiff University, Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3YE, Wales, UK

    Henrik Sass

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  1. Elke Freese
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Correspondence to Henrik Sass.

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Freese, E., Rütters, H., Köster, J. et al. Gammaproteobacteria as a Possible Source of Eicosapentaenoic Acid in Anoxic Intertidal Sediments. Microb Ecol 57, 444–454 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-008-9443-2

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