Diverse capacity for 2-methylhopanoid production correlates with a specific ecological niche

Molecular fossils of 2-methylhopanoids are prominent biomarkers in modern and ancient sediments that have been used as proxies for cyanobacteria and their main metabolism, oxygenic photosynthesis. However, substantial culture and genomic-based evidence now indicates that organisms other than cyanoba...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The ISME Journal 2014-03, Vol.8 (3), p.675-684
Main Authors: Ricci, Jessica N, Coleman, Maureen L, Welander, Paula V, Sessions, Alex L, Summons, Roger E, Spear, John R, Newman, Dianne K
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/326/2565/855
631/326/47
631/449
Bacteria - classification
Bacteria - genetics
Bacteria - metabolism
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Cyanobacteria - genetics
Cyanobacteria - metabolism
Ecology
Ecosystem
Evolutionary Biology
Fossils
Gene Library
Geologic Sediments - microbiology
Habitats
Hot springs
Life Sciences
Metagenomics
Microbial activity
Microbial Ecology
Microbial Genetics and Genomics
Microbiology
Niches
Nitrogen
Original
original-article
Photosynthesis
Plants - metabolism
Polycyclic Compounds - metabolism
Rocks
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Summary:Molecular fossils of 2-methylhopanoids are prominent biomarkers in modern and ancient sediments that have been used as proxies for cyanobacteria and their main metabolism, oxygenic photosynthesis. However, substantial culture and genomic-based evidence now indicates that organisms other than cyanobacteria can make 2-methylhopanoids. Because few data directly address which organisms produce 2-methylhopanoids in the environment, we used metagenomic and clone library methods to determine the environmental diversity of hpnP , the gene encoding the C-2 hopanoid methylase. Here we show that hpnP copies from alphaproteobacteria and as yet uncultured organisms are found in diverse modern environments, including some modern habitats representative of those preserved in the rock record. In contrast, cyanobacterial hpnP genes are rarer and tend to be localized to specific habitats. To move beyond understanding the taxonomic distribution of environmental 2-methylhopanoid producers, we asked whether hpnP presence might track with particular variables. We found hpnP to be significantly correlated with organisms, metabolisms and environments known to support plant–microbe interactions ( P -value
ISSN:1751-7362
1751-7370
DOI:10.1038/ismej.2013.191