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Distinct distribution revealing multiple bacterial sources for 1-O-monoalkyl glycerol ethers in terrestrial and lake environments

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Abstract

The 1-O-monoalkyl glycerol ethers (MAGEs) were initially viewed as the biomarkers for sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) mediating anaerobic oxidation of methane in the marine environments. However, limited information is known about their distribution in terrestrial and other aquatic settings including soils, fresh water lakes, and cave sediments, which may obscure our understanding of their biological sources. Here we found that MAGEs were ubiquitous but differed obviously in distributional pattern among those environments. The surface soils are dominated generally by iC15:0-MAGE, followed by nC16:0-MAGE whereas the lake sediments show the opposite, resulting in significantly higher iC15:0/nC16:0 ratios in soils than in lake sediments. The cave deposits are characterized by considerably higher proportions of branched MAGEs than the former two environments. The logarithm of iC15:0/aC15:0 ratio shows a significant negative correlation with soil pH, likely reflecting an adaptation of microbial cell membrane to change in the ambient proton concentration. The MAGE profiles in cultured bacteria cannot fully explain the MAGE distribution in all the samples analyzed. Therefore, MAGEs in soil, lake sediments, and cave deposits likely have additional biological source(s) other than SRB and cultured MAGE-producing bacteria. The difference in MAGE pattern among environments is likely to be attributed to change in microbial communities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Huan Yang, WenJie Xiao & ShuCheng Xie

  2. State Key Laboratory of Marine Geology, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    FengFeng Zheng

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  1. Huan Yang
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  4. ShuCheng Xie
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Correspondence to Huan Yang.

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Yang, H., Zheng, F., Xiao, W. et al. Distinct distribution revealing multiple bacterial sources for 1-O-monoalkyl glycerol ethers in terrestrial and lake environments. Sci. China Earth Sci. 58, 1005–1017 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-014-5016-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-014-5016-z

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