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Bacterial and archaeal communities in the surface sediment from the northern slope of the South China Sea

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Abstract

Microbial diversity of sediments from the northern slope of the South China Sea was studied by constructing bacterial and archaeal 16S rRNA gene clone libraries. Fourteen bacterial phylogenetic groups were detected, including Gammaproteobacteria, Deltaproteobacteria, Planctomycetes, Alphaproteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, Nitrospirae, candidate divisions OP8 and OP11, and an unknown group. Gammaproteobacteria was the predominant group in bacterial libraries with the percentage ranging from 31.8% to 63.2%. However, archaeal libraries had relatively lower diversity, with most clones belonging to marine archaeal group I uncultured Crenarchaeota. In addition, two novel euryarchaeal clones were detected not to match any culture-dependent or -independent isolates. Compared with other gas hydrate-rich ecosystems and different areas of the South China Sea, a distinct microbial community was revealed in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Li Liao, Dong-sheng Zhang & Min Wu

  2. Laboratory of Marine Ecosystem and Biogeochemistry, State Oceanic Administration, Hangzhou, 310012, China

    Xue-wei Xu, Chun-sheng Wang & Dong-sheng Zhang

  3. The Second Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Hangzhou, 310012, China

    Xue-wei Xu, Chun-sheng Wang & Dong-sheng Zhang

Authors
  1. Li Liao
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  2. Xue-wei Xu
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  3. Chun-sheng Wang
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  4. Dong-sheng Zhang
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  5. Min Wu
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Correspondence to Xue-wei Xu or Min Wu.

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Project supported by the Open Fund of the Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Environment, China Academy of Sciences (No. MGE2008KG05), the National Basic Research Program (973) of China (No. 2004CB719604-3), and the High-Tech Research and Development (863) of China (No. 2007AA021305)

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Liao, L., Xu, Xw., Wang, Cs. et al. Bacterial and archaeal communities in the surface sediment from the northern slope of the South China Sea. J. Zhejiang Univ. Sci. B 10, 890–901 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.B0920181

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.B0920181

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