Scientists discover dynamic microbial life in coastal deposits

Bijelow laboratory scientists have developed an exciting way to link individual microbial activity with their unique genetic symbol, providing the first application of the sediment approach. The results they reached recently Published in ISME magazine.

The method combines single Gulf genome science with a cell flow to measure individual breathing rates for a different classification. It revealed that the low oxygen deposits from the coast of Maine host a diverse microbial community that seems to flourish in an environment where they are regularly subjected to disrupting rapid changes in temperature, tide, carrots and more.

“Marine sediments are important environmental systems for active chemical cycling, and some of the most diverse societies in the microbes on Earth live there,” said Melody Lindsay, a research scientist at the Beglo Laboratory, who led the study. “It was a natural and wonderful place-to develop our way to shed light on microbial activity using mono-cell respiratory rates.”

The paper is characterized by researchers from the Single Genome Center in BGLOOW Laboratory and the Water Cellular Measurement Center, as well as many university trainees who helped field samples and laboratory experiences.

Shallow coastal deposits help control energy flow and nutrients from Earth to the ocean. Since oxygen penetrates only a few millimeters under the surface, the microbes that live in this environment tend to rely on chemical processes other than breathing or “breathing”, in order to survive. However, disturbances such as precipitation and animal deposits are regularly indicating oxygen and organic materials in the below surface. The team aims to understand the effect of this confusion and physical turmoil.

“We know that the abundance and diversity of microbes of the ocean deposits is much greater than it was in the water column above, but we know much less than their actual functions and activities,” said David Emerson, the researcher, a co -author of the newspaper. “This method provides a strong way to detect a new knowledge about a vast part, largely invoked, from the marine environment.”

Although scientists measured chemistry and other processes of microbial society as a whole, this greater effort is a revolution in understanding activity at the individual level – and how this is related to genetic capabilities.

The revolutionary new method has been developed by the BGLOW Laboratory from a $ 6 million grant from the National Science Corporation. In 2022, the researchers first applied the method on OceanIt shows how a small percentage of microbes consumes most oxygen. Last year, they tested it with samples The groundwater layer deeply under the valley of deathClarify the ability to apply the method in low -layer environments with limited oxygen.

For the current study, the team again used the cellular flow, and the staining of cells with a chemical called Redseensor Green. The intensity that the stained cells illuminate under the laser illuminate the rate to which these cells breathe. Then the DNA of each individual cell was sequenced to understand the relationship between its activity and the programmed to do it. This joint technique enables researchers to obtain a snapshot of microbial biological diversity and identify the most abundant and active species.

“The genome center of one cell is the first facility in the world capable of large -scale studies of the genome and microbial activities in the final decision in biology: individual cells,” said Ramonas Stepanasas, Director of the Center and an author of the study. “It is interesting that this unique technology enabled us to shed light on these important environmental processes and really amazing biological diversity in a very abundant but unstable environment.”

To test the ability of microbes to adapt to the turmoil, which was a new aspect of the project, the team added different amounts of oxygen and lactars, which are abundant carbohydrates produced by brown algae and some common plant plankton along the coast of Maine.

“By annoying the system in a way that is important in the real world, we can identify effects, for example, a worm buried in the deposits that bring oxygen or seaweed at the bottom of the clay,” said Lindsie.

The results show that the reduction of the sulfate from Chloroflexota Physlum was to the extent that the most active cells in the sediment, albeit the most abundant. The researchers also found that adding small concentrations of oxygen and lactarin stimulated breathing. Chloroplixota cells in metabolism are able to use both oxygen and other chemical processes. Lindsay suggested that “genetic flexibility” may explain the reason for controlling it.

“We have entered the hypothesis that oxygen will poison everything, but it turned out that the cells are good in carrying them and even benefiting from them,” said Lindsay. “It indicates that the microbial society that lives in this volatile environment is more flexible than it was initially believed.”

Results confirm on the amazing scale of microorganisms that live in these harsh environments-and the value of the cell cell approach to interrogating this diversity.

To this end, the team is currently working to expand its understanding of coastal sediments in Maine. Using the “Kickstarter” funding from the BGLOOW Laboratory, they started examining deeper samples of the same study sites using the same experimental design, to monitor how the microbes community changes deeply.

At the same time, they continue to improve the increasing way of extremist environments, and their application to the sediments collected through the international ocean discovery program for more than one kilometer below the Atlantic Hills, an environment that hosts orders of fewer cells.

Lindsay said: “The feature of this single approach, which enables the center of the aquatic cell measurement and the center of genetic science one cell, can target low -sized environments where there are very few cells, it will be impossible to make a measure otherwise.” “My dream is to get a cellular flow scale on a mission like NASA Europe Lander, so that we can use this technique to detect a possible metaphor activity in other worlds.”