Download or read book Ecological and Evolutionary Strategies of Archaeal Bacterial and Viral Communities in Deep sea Hydrothermal Vents written by Rika Elizabeth Anderson and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The deep-sea hydrothermal vent habitat, formed by subsurface water-rock reactions that create high-temperature hydrothermal fluid, is dominated by physical, chemical, and mineralogical gradients. The mixing of cold, oxidized seawater with hot, reduced hydrothermal fluid produces environments that span a range of temperatures, pH, redox potential, chemical composition, and mineralogy, with constant fluid flux between these regions. Communities of archaea, bacteria, and viruses live across the gradients within these systems and are both exposed to and transported by these fluids. Since these conditions can push the boundaries of the limits for life, may represent conditions found on other planetary bodies, and are thought to have been important for the early evolution of life on this planet, the study of microbial adaptation to hydrothermal vents is of great astrobiological importance. This dissertation explores how these extreme gradients structure hydrothermal vent microbial and viral communities, and what evolutionary strategies are used by both cells and viruses in hydrothermal systems to adapt to these extremes. The first part of this dissertation address adaptation on the community level by examining microbial community structuring in various niches within the vent environment. First, I explore microbial niche partitioning across diffuse flow and plumes in hydrothermal vent systems, using a combination of microbial community profiling techniques and qPCR to demonstrate that certain microbial lineages are found in high abundance in particular conditions, but are far less abundant in other regions of the gradient. Second, I use 16S pyrotag sequencing to compare the structures of the rare and abundant biospheres across several hydrothermal vent systems worldwide. Through this I demonstrate that archaeal communities exhibit fundamentally different biogeographic patterning compared to bacterial communities. Whereas bacterial rare and abundant groups show similar biogeographic patterning, abundant archaeal groups are generally cosmopolitan and abundant everywhere but rare archaeal groups are biogeographically restricted. The second part of my dissertation focuses on adaptive strategies among viruses and their microbial hosts. I first demonstrate a novel method by which to identify potential hosts of a viral assemblage using metagenomics, showing that viruses in the vent system have the potential to infect a wide range of hosts. Finally, I use comparative metagenomics to demonstrate that the viral fraction in a high-temperature hydrothermal system is relatively enriched in energy-metabolizing genes, and present evidence suggesting that these genes are transferred by viruses as an adaptive strategy to enhance host metabolic plasticity in a dynamic environment. Taken together, this work indicates that the gradient-dominated nature of vent systems fosters a diverse microbial community through adaptation to particular niches, and that virally-mediated transfer of genes between these diverse hosts creates genomic plasticity to facilitate adaptation to the vent environment. In this sense niche partitioning drives these microbial lineages apart, while horizontal gene transfer allows them to borrow adaptive strategies from each other.
Download or read book The Ecology of Deep sea Hydrothermal Vents written by Cindy Van Dover and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teeming with weird and wonderful life--giant clams and mussels, tubeworms, "eyeless" shrimp, and bacteria that survive on sulfur--deep-sea hot-water springs are found along rifts where sea-floor spreading occurs. The theory of plate tectonics predicted the existence of these hydrothermal vents, but they were discovered only in 1977. Since then the sites have attracted teams of scientists seeking to understand how life can thrive in what would seem to be intolerable or extreme conditions of temperature and fluid chemistry. Some suspect that these vents even hold the key to understanding the very origins of life. Here a leading expert provides the first authoritative and comprehensive account of this research in a book intended for students, professionals, and general readers. Cindy Lee Van Dover, an ecologist, brings nearly two decades of experience and a lively writing style to the text, which is further enhanced by two hundred illustrations, including photographs of vent communities taken in situ. The book begins by explaining what is known about hydrothermal systems in terms of their deep-sea environment and their geological and chemical makeup. The coverage of microbial ecology includes a chapter on symbiosis. Symbiotic relationships are further developed in a section on physiological ecology, which includes discussions of adaptations to sulfide, thermal tolerances, and sensory adaptations. Separate chapters are devoted to trophic relationships and reproductive ecology. A chapter on community dynamics reveals what has been learned about the ways in which vent communities become established and why they persist, while a chapter on evolution and biogeography examines patterns of species diversity and evolutionary relationships within chemosynthetic ecosystems. Cognate communities such as seeps and whale skeletons come under scrutiny for their ability to support microbial and invertebrate communities that are ecologically and evolutionarily related to hydrothermal faunas. The book concludes by exploring the possibility that life originated at hydrothermal vents, a hypothesis that has had tremendous impact on our ideas about the potential for life on other planets or planetary bodies in our solar system.
Download or read book Life at Vents and Seeps written by Jens Kallmeyer and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vents and seeps are the epitome of life in extreme environments, but there is much more to these systems than just black smokers or hydrocarbon seeps. Many other ecosystems are characterized by moving fluids and this book provides an overview of the different habitats, their specific conditions as well as the technical challenges that have to be met when studying them. The book provides the current state of the art and will be a valuable resource for everybody that has an interest in such environments.
Download or read book Hydrothermal microbial ecosystems written by Andreas Teske and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2015-11-24 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The papers in the "Hydrothermal Vent" e-book cover a range of microbiological research in deep and shallow hydrothermal environments, from high temperature “black smokers,” to diffuse flow habitats and episodically discharging subsurface fluids, to the hydrothermal plumes. Together they provide a snapshot of current research interests in a field that has evolved rapidly since the discovery of hydrothermal vents in 1977. Hydrothermally influenced microbial habitats and communities represent a wide spectrum of geological setting, chemical in-situ regimes, and biotic communities; the classical examples of basalt-hosted black smoker chimneys at active mid-ocean spreading centers have been augmented by hydrothermally heated and chemically altered sediments, microbiota fueled by serpentinization reactions, and low-temperature vents with unusual menus of electron donors. Environmental gradients and niches provide habitats for unusual or unprecedented microorganisms and microbial ecosystems. The discovery of novel extremophiles underscores untapped microbial diversity in hydrothermal vent microbial communities. Different stages of hydrothermal activity, from early onset to peak activity, gradual decline, and persistence of cold and fossil vent sites, correspond to different colonization waves by microorganisms as well as megafauna. Perhaps no other field in microbiology is so intertwined with the geological and geochemical evolution of the oceans, and promises so many biochemical and physiological discoveries still to be made within the unexhausted richness of extreme microbial life.
Download or read book The Social Biology of Microbial Communities written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2013-01-10 with total page 633 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning with the germ theory of disease in the 19th century and extending through most of the 20th century, microbes were believed to live their lives as solitary, unicellular, disease-causing organisms . This perception stemmed from the focus of most investigators on organisms that could be grown in the laboratory as cellular monocultures, often dispersed in liquid, and under ambient conditions of temperature, lighting, and humidity. Most such inquiries were designed to identify microbial pathogens by satisfying Koch's postulates.3 This pathogen-centric approach to the study of microorganisms produced a metaphorical "war" against these microbial invaders waged with antibiotic therapies, while simultaneously obscuring the dynamic relationships that exist among and between host organisms and their associated microorganisms-only a tiny fraction of which act as pathogens. Despite their obvious importance, very little is actually known about the processes and factors that influence the assembly, function, and stability of microbial communities. Gaining this knowledge will require a seismic shift away from the study of individual microbes in isolation to inquiries into the nature of diverse and often complex microbial communities, the forces that shape them, and their relationships with other communities and organisms, including their multicellular hosts. On March 6 and 7, 2012, the Institute of Medicine's (IOM's) Forum on Microbial Threats hosted a public workshop to explore the emerging science of the "social biology" of microbial communities. Workshop presentations and discussions embraced a wide spectrum of topics, experimental systems, and theoretical perspectives representative of the current, multifaceted exploration of the microbial frontier. Participants discussed ecological, evolutionary, and genetic factors contributing to the assembly, function, and stability of microbial communities; how microbial communities adapt and respond to environmental stimuli; theoretical and experimental approaches to advance this nascent field; and potential applications of knowledge gained from the study of microbial communities for the improvement of human, animal, plant, and ecosystem health and toward a deeper understanding of microbial diversity and evolution. The Social Biology of Microbial Communities: Workshop Summary further explains the happenings of the workshop.
Download or read book Microbial Ecology of Deep sea Hydrothermal Vents written by Ileana Pérez-Rodríguez and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The global influence of mid-oceanic ridges (MOR) first became apparent through continental drifting--its immanent force easily appreciated in today's resulting continents. The role of MORs as a source of global-ocean chemistry is less apparent but equally immense. Key to these processes is fluid-rock reactions between circulating seawater and hot new basalt. With the discovery of hydrothermal vent ecosystems in the 1970's, yet another important consequence of rock-fluid interaction was established in chemosynthesis. Early photographic descriptions of "frosted white and yellow precipitates" covering basalt rocks close to discharged hydrothermal fluids, with benthic communities emerging from them, referred to the now known chemosynthetic biofilms that interact with hydrothermal fluids. These microorganisms have a pivotal role in transforming the geochemistry of Earth's oceans. The main objectives of this dissertation are to study anaerobic chemosynthetic vent microorganisms, and to explore the molecular ecology of these biofilm communities. Initial approaches included isolation of anaerobic chemosynthetic microorganisms resulting in the description of two novel bacterial species: the epsilonproteobacterium Nautilia nitratireducens strain MB-1T, and Phorcys thermohydrogeniphilus strain HB-8T, a new genus in the Aquificales. Both bacteria are obligate thermophilic anaerobes, capable of hydrogen oxidation coupled to sulfur- and nitrate-reduction. Further investigation focused on mechanisms regulating vent biofilms, the dominant growth strategy in vent microbial communities. Quorum-sensing (QS), a mechanism relying on cell density and the production of extracellular signals for cell-cell communication, is used by many microbial species to regulate biofilm formation. One QS signal is Autoinducer-2, whose precursor is synthesized by the LuxS enzyme. To study QS in vent environments, Caminibacter mediatlanticus and Sulfurovum lithotrophicum, cultured members of the well represented Epsilonproteobacteria, were used as model systems. The luxS gene and transcripts were detected in their genomes and during growth, respectively; these luxS-expressing cultures induced bioluminescence, a QS response, in a Vibrio harveyi reporter strain. Detection of luxS transcripts in-situ, also indicated that QS is likely occurring in natural vent biofilms. This data demonstrates that vent Epsilonproteobacteria posses the luxS/AI-2 system for cell-cell communication. This work is relevant to our overall understanding of microbial phenotypic plasticity in response to environmental factors.
Download or read book Microbial Ecology of Active Marine Hydrothermal Vent Deposits written by Gilberto Eugene Flores and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The discovery of deep-sea hydrothermal vents in 1977 revealed an ecosystem supported by chemosynthesis with a rich diversity of invertebrates, Archaea and Bacteria. While the invertebrate vent communities are largely composed of endemic species and exist in different biogeographical provinces, the possible factors influencing the distribution patterns of free-living Archaea and Bacteria are still being explored. In particular, how differences in the geologic setting of vent fields influence microbial communities and populations associated with active vent deposits remains largely unknown. The overall goal of the studies presented in this dissertation was to examine the links between the geologic setting of hydrothermal vent fields and microorganisms associated with actively venting mineral deposits at two levels of biological organization. At the community level, bar-coded pyrosequencing of a segment of the archaeal and bacterial 16S rRNA gene was employed to characterize and compare the microbial communities associated with numerous deposits from several geochemically different vent fields. Results from these studies suggest that factors influencing end-member fluid chemistry, such as host-rock composition and degassing of magmatic volatiles, help to structure the microbial communities at the vent field scale. At the population level, targeted cultivation-dependent and -independent studies were conducted in order to expand our understanding of thermoacidophily in diverse hydrothermal environments. Results of these studies expanded the phylogenetic and physiological diversity of thermoacidophiles in deep-sea vent environments and provided clues to factors that are influencing the biogeography of an important thermoacidophilic archaeal lineage. Overall, these studies have increased our understanding of the interplay between geologic processes and microorganisms in deep-sea hydrothermal environments.
Download or read book Trace Metal Biogeochemistry and Ecology of Deep Sea Hydrothermal Vent Systems written by Liudmila L. Demina and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume synthesizes the relevant data that is fundamental to our understanding of trace metal biogeochemistry and the ecology of biological communities of deep-sea vent systems. It presents the combined results of biological and geochemical research and analyzes the microdistribution of animals and the spatial structure of vent communities. Careful consideration is given to the export of iron and other trace metals from hydrothermal vents. The environmental conditions to be found in deep-sea hydrothermal community habitats, along with the trace metal behavior in biotope water are characterized and the sources and forms of trace metals taken up by dominant hydrothermal vent animals are discussed. Special attention is paid to the poorly investigated deep biosphere of the sub-seafloor igneous crust. The book is illustrated with a wealth of exceptional deep-sea photos taken by the manned submersible "Mir", and a dedicated chapter focuses on the role of deep manned submersibles in ocean research. The book will be of interest to researchers and students in the fields of oceanography, geochemistry, biology, the environmental sciences and marine ecology.
Download or read book Life in Extreme Environments written by Ricardo Amils Pibernat and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-07-21 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an intriguing look at how life can adapt to many different extreme environments. It addresses the limits for life development and examines different strategies used by organisms to adapt to different extreme environments.
Download or read book Temporal and Spatial Development of Communities at Nascent Deep sea Hydrothermal Vents and Evolutionary Relationships of Hydrothermal vent Caridean Shrimp Bresiliidae written by Timothy Mitchell Shank and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Microbial Evolution and Co Adaptation written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2009-05-10 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dr. Joshua Lederberg - scientist, Nobel laureate, visionary thinker, and friend of the Forum on Microbial Threats - died on February 2, 2008. It was in his honor that the Institute of Medicine's Forum on Microbial Threats convened a public workshop on May 20-21, 2008, to examine Dr. Lederberg's scientific and policy contributions to the marketplace of ideas in the life sciences, medicine, and public policy. The resulting workshop summary, Microbial Evolution and Co-Adaptation, demonstrates the extent to which conceptual and technological developments have, within a few short years, advanced our collective understanding of the microbiome, microbial genetics, microbial communities, and microbe-host-environment interactions.
Download or read book The Deep Hot Biosphere written by Thomas Gold and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-12-01 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book sets forth a set of truly controversial and astonishing theories: First, it proposes that below the surface of the earth is a biosphere of greater mass and volume than the biosphere the total sum of living things on our planet's continents and in its oceans. Second, it proposes that the inhabitants of this subterranean biosphere are not plants or animals as we know them, but heat-loving bacteria that survive on a diet consisting solely of hydrocarbons that is, natural gas and petroleum. And third and perhaps most heretically, the book advances the stunning idea that most hydrocarbons on Earth are not the byproduct of biological debris ("fossil fuels"), but were a common constituent of the materials from which the earth itself was formed some 4.5 billion years ago. The implications are astounding. The theory proposes answers to often-asked questions: Is the deep hot biosphere where life originated, and do Mars and other seemingly barren planets contain deep biospheres? Even more provocatively, is it possible that there is an enormous store of hydrocarbons upwelling from deep within the earth that can provide us with abundant supplies of gas and petroleum? However far-fetched these ideas seem, they are supported by a growing body of evidence, and by the indisputable stature and seriousness Gold brings to any scientific debate. In this book we see a brilliant and boldly original thinker, increasingly a rarity in modern science, as he develops potentially revolutionary ideas about how our world works.
Download or read book Archaeal Virus host Interactions written by Tessa Quax and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The work presented in this thesis provides novel insights in several aspects of the molecular biology of Archaea, Bacteria and their viruses. The archaeal virus Sulfolobus islandicus rod-shaped virus 2 (SIRV2), has a remarkable infection cycle. Infection with SIRV2 results in the formation of large virus associated pyramids (VAPs) on the host cell surface. The pyramids open during the final step of the infection cycle, to allow the release of virions. This virus release mechanism is unique. The VAPs are formed by self-assembly of one virus-encoded protein, PVAP. VAPs exist as discrete particles, and are baseless pyramids with heptagonal perimeter. The assembly process of the VAPs is described, based on cryo-electron tomography experiments and mutational analysis of PVAP. VAPs consists of two layers of which the outer one continuous with the cell membrane. PVAP expression in bacterial and eukaryotic cells resulted in VAP formation on nearly all membranes, demonstrating that PVAP serves as a universal membrane remodeling system, which might be exploited for biotechnological purposes. Whole transcriptome sequencing allowed determination of a global map of virus and host gene expression during the infection cycle. Host genes involved in anti-viral defence are activated (i.e. CRISPR-Cas and toxin anti-toxin systems). The multi-subunit protein complexes crucial for CRISPR anti-viral defence have an uneven stoichiometry and are encoded on operons. It is shown that differential translation is a key determinant of modulated expression of genes clustered in operons and that codon bias generally is the best in silico indicator of unequal protein production.
Download or read book Deep Subsurface Microbiology written by Andreas Teske and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2015-07-01 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deep subsurface microbiology is a highly active and rapidly advancing research field at the interface of microbiology and the geosciences; it focuses on the detection, identification, quantification, cultivation and activity measurements of bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes that permeate the subsurface biosphere of deep marine sediments and the basaltic ocean and continental crust. The deep subsurface biosphere abounds with uncultured, only recently discovered and – at best - incompletely understood microbial populations. In spatial extent and volume, Earth's subsurface biosphere is only rivaled by the deep sea water column. So far, no deep subsurface sediment has been found that is entirely devoid of microbial life; microbial cells and DNA remain detectable at sediment depths of more than 1 km; microbial life permeates deeply buried hydrocarbon reservoirs, and is also found several kilometers down in continental crust aquifers. Severe energy limitation, either as electron acceptor or donor shortage, and scarcity of microbially degradable organic carbon sources are among the evolutionary pressures that have shaped the genomic and physiological repertoire of the deep subsurface biosphere. Its biogeochemical role as long-term organic carbon repository, inorganic electron and energy source, and subduction recycling engine continues to be explored by current research at the interface of microbiology, geochemistry and biosphere/geosphere evolution. This Research Topic addresses some of the central research questions about deep subsurface microbiology and biogeochemistry: phylogenetic and physiological microbial diversity in the deep subsurface; microbial activity and survival strategies in severely energy-limited subsurface habitats; microbial activity as reflected in process rates and gene expression patterns; biogeographic isolation and connectivity in deep subsurface microbial communities; the ecological standing of subsurface biospheres in comparison to the surface biosphere – an independently flourishing biosphere, or mere survivors that tolerate burial (along with organic carbon compounds), or a combination of both? Advancing these questions on Earth’s deep subsurface biosphere redefines the habitat range, environmental tolerance, activity and diversity of microbial life.
Download or read book Marine Metagenomics written by Takashi Gojobori and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-07-24 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the state-of-art marine metagenome research and explains the method of marine metagenomic analysis in an easy-to-understand manner. Changes in the marine environment due to global warming and pollution have become a major global problem. Maintaining a healthy marine ecosystem requires advanced environmental monitoring and assessment systems. As such, the book presents a novel metagenomic monitoring method, which has been developed for comprehensive analyses of the DNA of microorganisms living in seawater to further our understanding of the dynamics of the marine environment. The book can be used as a primer for new researchers and as a manual on experimental methods.
Download or read book Archaea written by Roger A. Garrett and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-05-12 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduced by Crafoord Prize winner Carl Woese, this volumecombines reviews of the major developments in archaeal researchover the past 10–15 years with more specialized articlesdealing with important recent breakthroughs. Drawing on majorthemes presented at the June 2005 meeting held in Munich to honorthe archaea pioneers Wolfram Zillig and Karl O. Stetter, the bookprovides a thorough survey of the field from its controversialbeginnings to its ongoing expansion to include aspects ofeukaryotic biology. The editors have assembled articles from the premier researchersin this rapidly burgeoning field, including an account by CarlWoese of his original discovery of the Archaea (until 1990 termedarchaebacteria) and the initially mixed reactions of the scientificcommunity. The review chapters and specialized articles address theemerging significance of the Archaea within a broader scientificand technological context, and include accounts of cutting-edgeresearch developments. The book spans archaeal evolution,physiology, and molecular and cellular biology and will be anessential reference for both graduate students and researchers.
Download or read book Sea Ice written by David N. Thomas and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-03-06 with total page 666 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past 20 years the study of the frozen Arctic and Southern Oceans and sub-arctic seas has progressed at a remarkable pace. This third edition of Sea Ice gives insight into the very latest understanding of the how sea ice is formed, how we measure (and model) its extent, the biology that lives within and associated with sea ice and the effect of climate change on its distribution. How sea ice influences the oceanography of underlying waters and the influences that sea ice has on humans living in Arctic regions are also discussed. Featuring twelve new chapters, this edition follows two previous editions (2001 and 2010), and the need for this latest update exhibits just how rapidly the science of sea ice is developing. The 27 chapters are written by a team of more than 50 of the worlds’ leading experts in their fields. These combine to make the book the most comprehensive introduction to the physics, chemistry, biology and geology of sea ice that there is. This third edition of Sea Ice will be a key resource for all policy makers, researchers and students who work with the frozen oceans and seas.
