Abstract
Little is known about the community structure and metabolic potential of microbial communities in hydrothermal fields in the Central Indian Ridge (CIR). In this study, a metagenomic sequencing approach was conducted to explore the microbial diversity in three sediment samples collected during the 2019 expedition from two recently discovered hydrothermal vent fields; Invent E and Onnuri Vent Field (OVF). Analysis of unassembled metagenomic reads using the Metagenomic analysis server (MG-RAST) revealed that microbial communities of the two sampling sites were very similar, showing the dominance of Bacteria over Archaea. Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, as well as Euryarchaeota were dominant in all samples. Functional annotation based on KEGG categories shows that the microbial populations in these vent fields possess metabolic capabilities for aerobic respiration, carbon fixation through the Calvin–Bassham–Benson (CBB) cycle, the reverse tricarboxylic acid (rTCA) cycle, and reductive acetyl-CoA pathway as well as sulfur and nitrogen metabolisms. Comparative metagenome analysis with different datasets obtained from different ocean ridges showed that microbial communities at low activity or hydrothermally influenced area differ from highly active hydrothermal communities. This study provides insights into the genetic diversity and functional capability of the microbial communities of slow to intermediate spreading hydrothermal systems.
Highlights
Deep-sea hydrothermal vents contain extreme thermal and chemical gradients, yet they harbor the most unique and diverse habitats for various microorganisms (Zeng et al, 2021)
To date a limited number of hydrothermal fields have been identified in the Indian Ocean including the MESO Mineral Zone (Halbach et al, 1998), Kairei (Gamo et al, 2001), Edmond (Van Dover et al, 2001), Solitaire, Dodo (Nakamura et al, 2012), and Onnuri fields (Kim et al, 2020) in the Central Indian Ridge (CIR), Daxi and Wocan fields in the Carlsberg Ridge (Wang et al, 2017, 2020), Mount Jourdanne (Münch et al, 2001), Yuhuang-1 (Liao et al, 2018), Longqi (Tao et al, 2012), Duanqiao (Yang et al, 2017), and Tiancheng (Zhou et al, 2018) in the South West Indian Ridge (SWIR), and Pelagia vent field (Han et al, 2018) in the South East Indian Ridge (SEIR)
In this study, using a metagenomic approach, we report for the first time the microbial ecology of the recently discovered hydrothermal vents (OVF and Invent E) located along the slow-spreading CIR
Summary
Deep-sea hydrothermal vents contain extreme thermal and chemical gradients, yet they harbor the most unique and diverse habitats for various microorganisms (Zeng et al, 2021). Biomass production in vent ecosystems is mainly fueled by oxidation of reduced compounds in hydrothermal fluids to fix carbon primarily by chemolithoautotrophic microorganisms (Fisher et al, 2007; Nakagawa and Takai, 2008) and they provide a source of nutrition for the higher organisms. The discovery of deep hydrothermal vent fields in the 1970s (Francheteau et al, 1979) has attracted great attention to scientists with over 700 vent fields discovered and investigated along mid-ocean ridges, volcanic arcs, and tectonic settings (Dick, 2019; Beaulieu and Szafranski, 2020). To date a limited number of hydrothermal fields have been identified in the Indian Ocean including the MESO Mineral Zone (Halbach et al, 1998), Kairei (Gamo et al, 2001), Edmond (Van Dover et al, 2001), Solitaire, Dodo (Nakamura et al, 2012), and Onnuri fields (Kim et al, 2020) in the Central Indian Ridge (CIR), Daxi and Wocan fields in the Carlsberg Ridge (Wang et al, 2017, 2020), Mount Jourdanne (Münch et al, 2001), Yuhuang-1 (Liao et al, 2018), Longqi (Tao et al, 2012), Duanqiao (Yang et al, 2017), and Tiancheng (Zhou et al, 2018) in the South West Indian Ridge (SWIR), and Pelagia vent field (Han et al, 2018) in the South East Indian Ridge (SEIR)
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