Diversity of sediment associated Planctomycetes and its related phyla with special reference to anammox bacterial community in a high Arctic fjord

AbstractThe fjords of west Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, are undergoing a transformation as the impact of nutrient rich warmer Atlantic water is significantly altering the primary production and subsequently the carbon pool. Members of the phylumPlanctomycetes are ubiquitous in marine systems and are important in the mineralization of organic matter. Hence, the phylogenetic diversity and distribution pattern ofPlanctomycetes in the surface sediments of a high Arctic fjord, the Kongsfjorden were studied. Further, considering the release of ammonium as a part of mineralization, the diversity of bacterial community involved in anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) was also evaluated. The highly diversePlanctomycetes community, which consisted mainly of uncultivated and uncharacterizedPlanctomycetes, was observed in the study area with a total of 162 OTUs. The major genera observed wereBlastopirellula (13.3%),Gimesia (13%),Rhodopirellula (10%),Planctomicrobium (2%) andThermogutta (1.6%). Functional prediction revealed the dominance of carbohydrate metabolism genes and the presence of gene clusters for production of secondary metabolites and xenobiotic degradation. Anammox bacterial sequences were detected from all the samples with a total of 52 OTUs. Most of the OTUs belonged to the genusCandidatus Scalindua and three distinct clusters were observed in the phylogenetic tree, (a)Ca. Scalindua brodae (49%), (b)Ca. Scalindua wagneri (31%) and (c)Ca. Scalindua marina (12%) ba...
Source: World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology - Category: Microbiology Source Type: research