Tracking microbial habitats in subseafloor sediments

Abstract

Throughout the world’s oceans, the sediments that cover the seafloor, and the cracks and fissures of the basaltic ocean crust, are permeated by microbial life (1, 2). As these bacteria and archaea are mostly not available in laboratory culture and thus elude direct physiological characterization, Jorgensen et al. correlate geochemical regimes in subseafloor sediments with in situ abundance of specific groups of uncultured bacteria and archaea to infer their habitat preferences, to develop specific hypotheses about their metabolism, and to design promising cultivation strategies (3).