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Bacterial community shift along a subsurface geothermal water stream in a Japanese gold mine

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Abstract

Change of bacterial community occurring along a hot water stream in the Hishikari gold mine, Japan, was investigated by applying a combination of various culture-independent techniques. The stream, which is derived from a subsurface anaerobic aquifer containing plentiful CO2, CH4, H2, and NH +4 , emerges in a mine tunnel 320 m below the surface providing nutrients for a lush microbial community that extends to a distance of approximately 7 m in the absence of sunlight-irradiation. Over this distance, the temperature decreases from 69°C to 55°C, and the oxidation-reduction potential increases from −130 mV to +59 mV. In the hot upper reaches of the stream, the dominant phylotypes were: 1) a deeply branching lineage of thermophilic methane-oxidizing γ-Proteobacteria, and 2) a thermophilic hydrogen- and sulfur-oxidizing Sulfurihydrogenibium sp. In contrast, the prevailing phylotypes in the middle and lower parts of the stream were closely related to ammonia-oxidizing Nitrosomonas and nitrite-oxidizing Nitrospira spp.. Changes in the microbial metabolic potential estimated by competitive PCR analysis of genes encoding the enzymes, particulate methane monooxygenase (pmoA), ammonia monooxygenase (amoA), and putative nitrite oxidoreductase (norB), also substantiated the community shift indicated by 16S rRNA gene analysis. The diversity of putative norB lineages was assessed for the first time in the hot water environment. Estimation of dominant phylotypes by whole-cell fluorescent in situ hybridization and changes in inorganic nitrogen compounds such as decreasing ammonium and increasing nitrite and nitrate in the mat-interstitial water along the stream were consistent with the observed transition of the bacterial community structure in the stream.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the management of the Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Ltd. for its cooperation in and understanding of our research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Subground Animalcule Retrieval (SUGAR) Project, Extremobiosphere Research Center, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science & Technology (JAMSTEC), 2-15 Natsushima-cho, Yokosuka, 237-0061, Japan

    Hisako Hirayama, Ken Takai, Fumio Inagaki, Masae Suzuki, Kenneth H. Nealson & Koki Horikoshi

  2. Hishikari Mine, Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd, 3844 Maeme, Hishikari-cho, Kagoshima 895-2701, Japan

    Yu Yamato

  3. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Science Hall 223, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-0740, USA

    Kenneth H. Nealson

Authors
  1. Hisako Hirayama
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  2. Ken Takai
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  3. Fumio Inagaki
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  4. Yu Yamato
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  5. Masae Suzuki
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  6. Kenneth H. Nealson
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  7. Koki Horikoshi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hisako Hirayama.

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Communicated by W.D. Grant

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Hirayama, H., Takai, K., Inagaki, F. et al. Bacterial community shift along a subsurface geothermal water stream in a Japanese gold mine. Extremophiles 9, 169–184 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-005-0433-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-005-0433-8

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