Abstract

The marine pelagic archaeal community is dominated by three major groups, the marine group I (MGI) Thaumarchaeota, and the marine groups II and III (MGII and MGIII) Euryarchaeota. Studies of both MGI cultures and the environment have shown that the MGI core membrane lipids are predominantly composed of glycerol dibiphytanyl glycerol tetraether (GDGT) lipids and the diether lipid archaeol. However, there are no cultured representatives of MGII and III archaea and, therefore, both their membrane lipid composition and potential contribution to the marine archaeal lipid pool remain unknown. Here, we show that GDGTs present in suspended particulate matter of the (sub)surface waters of the North Atlantic Ocean and the coastal North Sea are derived from MGI archaea, and that MGII archaea do not significantly contribute to the pool of GDGTs and archaeol. This implies, in contrast to previous suggestions, that their lipids do not affect the widely used sea surface temperature proxy TEX86. These findings also indicate that MGII archaea are not able to produce any known archaeal lipids, implying that our understanding of the evolution of membrane lipid biosynthesis in Archaea is far from complete.

Highlights

  • The marine pelagic archaeal community is dominated by three major groups, the marine group I (MGI) Thaumarchaeota, and the marine groups II and III (MGII and MGIII) Euryarchaeota

  • We analyzed the ether lipid composition and archaeal diversity and abundance from suspended particulate matter (SPM) collected at depth intervals between 5–200 meters below sea level on glass-fiber filters with pore size 0.3 μm in the tropical North Atlantic and between 5–83 mbsl at four nearby stations using glass-fiber filters with pore size 0.7 μm

  • At depths < 50 mbsl, the archaeal community consisted mainly of MGII archaea with relative abundances ranging between 65–93% of total archaeal 16S rRNA gene reads (Fig. 1B)

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Summary

Introduction

The marine pelagic archaeal community is dominated by three major groups, the marine group I (MGI) Thaumarchaeota, and the marine groups II and III (MGII and MGIII) Euryarchaeota Studies of both MGI cultures and the environment have shown that the MGI core membrane lipids are predominantly composed of glycerol dibiphytanyl glycerol tetraether (GDGT) lipids and the diether lipid archaeol. We show that GDGTs present in suspended particulate matter of the (sub)surface waters of the North Atlantic Ocean and the coastal North Sea are derived from MGI archaea, and that MGII archaea do not significantly contribute to the pool of GDGTs and archaeol This implies, in contrast to previous suggestions, that their lipids do not affect the widely used sea surface temperature proxy TEX86. The abundance and composition of archaeal lipids were determined by Ultra High-Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled to High-Resolution Accurate-Mass/Mass Spectrometry (UHPLC-HRAM/MS), and the results were compared in order to constrain the importance of the three main archaeal pelagic groups in their contribution to the marine archaeal lipid pool

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Conclusion

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