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Community Structure of Archaea from Deep-Sea Sediments of the South China Sea

  • Environmental Microbiology
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Abstract

Using the archaeal 16S rRNA gene, we determined the community structures of archaea of subseafloor sediments (∼9–11 m below seafloor) from two geographically distant cores (MD05-2896, south, water depth 1,657 m; MD05-2902, north, water depth 3,697 m) in the South China Sea. Euryarchaeota accounted for 61.4% of total archaeal clone libraries at MD05-2896 and 56.2% at MD05-2902. At both locations, the Euryarchaeota-related sequences were dominated by Marine Benthic Group D, Terrestrial Miscellaneous Eryarchaeotal Group, and South African GoldMine Euryarchaeotal Group; the Crenarchaeota-related sequences were dominated by Marine Benthic Group B, Marine Group I, pSL12, and C3. The community structure showed no significant difference with depth at each location, suggesting the lack of stratification of archaeal populations in the deep-sea marine sediments in the South China Sea. On the other hand, the community structure is significantly different between the two sites, which may be related to geographical difference in the South China Sea.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the crew on the MD-147-MARCO POLO cruise of the R/V Marion Dufresne of the French Polar Institute (IPEV). This work is financially supported by the Key Project of China National Programs for Fundamental Research and Development (No. 2007CB815904), National Natural Science Foundation of China (40606032), COMRA fund grant (DYXM-115-02-2-17), and Shanghai Rising-Star Program (A) (08QA14065). Contribution of CLZ is supported by Tongji Lecture Professorship and the University of Mississippi Gulf of Mexico Hydrates Research Consortium.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Marine Geology, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, People’s Republic of China

    Peng Wang, Tao Li, Yuli Wei, Wenting Guo & Chuanlun Zhang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, People’s Republic of China

    Anyi Hu & Nianzhi Jiao

  3. Department of Marine Sciences, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA

    Chuanlun Zhang

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  1. Peng Wang
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Correspondence to Peng Wang or Chuanlun Zhang.

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Table S1

Chemical information for each layer of MD05-2896 and MD05-2902. (RTF 109 kb)

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Wang, P., Li, T., Hu, A. et al. Community Structure of Archaea from Deep-Sea Sediments of the South China Sea. Microb Ecol 60, 796–806 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-010-9746-y

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