Microbial Communities and Chemosynthesis in Yellowstone Lake Sublacustrine Hydrothermal Vent Waters

Tingting Yang,Shawn Lyons,Carmen Aguilar,Russell Cuhel,Andreas Teske

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2011.00130

Tingting Yang, Shawn Lyons + Show 3 more

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Five sublacustrine thermal spring locations from 1 to 109 m water depth in Yellowstone Lake were surveyed by 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing in relation to their chemical composition and dark CO2 fixation rates. They harbor distinct chemosynthetic bacterial communities, depending on temperature (16–110°C) and electron donor supply (H2S <1 to >100 μM; NH3 <0.5 to >10 μM). Members of the Aquificales, most closely affiliated with the genus Sulfurihydrogenibium, are the most frequently recovered bacterial 16S rRNA gene phylotypes in the hottest samples; the detection of these thermophilic sulfur-oxidizing autotrophs coincided with maximal dark CO2 fixation rates reaching near 9 μM C h−1 at temperatures of 50–60°C. Vents at lower temperatures yielded mostly phylotypes related to the mesophilic gammaproteobacterial sulfur oxidizer Thiovirga. In contrast, cool vent water with low chemosynthetic activity yielded predominantly phylotypes related to freshwater Actinobacterial clusters with a cosmopolitan distribution.

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In-depth geophysical and geochemical exploration and lake floor mapping of Yellowstone Lake, the largest Alpine Lake in the United States, has revealed numerous sublacustrine hot vents and hydrothermal features in geothermally active areas on the lake bottom (Klump et al, 1988, 1995; Remsen et al, 1990; Morgan et al, 2003a,b)
The chemical composition of the five water samples from sublacustrine Yellowstone Lake vents was distinct for every sample; reduced sulfur
HYDROGEN- AND SULFUR-BASED CHEMOSYNTHESIS The results from the Yellowstone Lake hydrothermal vents form an interesting contrast to previous results from multiple aerial hot springs in Yellowstone National Park (Spear et al, 2005)

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Introduction

In-depth geophysical and geochemical exploration and lake floor mapping of Yellowstone Lake, the largest Alpine Lake in the United States, has revealed numerous sublacustrine hot vents and hydrothermal features in geothermally active areas on the lake bottom (Klump et al, 1988, 1995; Remsen et al, 1990; Morgan et al, 2003a,b). In contrast to the well-studied photosynthetic and chemosynthetic aerial hot spring communities of Yellowstone Park terrestrial habitats (Ward et al, 1998; Spear et al, 2005), systematic analyses of these Yellowstone Lake hydrothermal microbial communities are in their early stages, but have already demonstrated the potential for autotrophic, thermophilic chemosynthetic microbial communities. The isolation of the thermophilic sulfate-reducing bacterium Thermodesulfovibrio yellowstonii, a deeply branching bacterial lineage from Yellowstone Lake thermal vents, implies untapped potential for further discoveries (Henry et al, 1994)

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