Genomic repertoire of the Woeseiaceae/JTB255, cosmopolitan and abundant core members of microbial communities in marine sediments.

Mußmann M, Pjevac P, Krüger K, Dyksma S

ISME J 11 (5) 1276-1281 [2017-05-00; online 2017-01-06]

To date, very little is known about the bacterial core community of marine sediments. Here we study the environmental distribution, abundance and ecogenomics of the gammaproteobacterial Woeseiaceae/JTB255 marine benthic group. A meta-analysis of published work shows that the Woeseiaceae/JTB255 are ubiquitous and consistently rank among the most abundant 16S rRNA gene sequences in diverse marine sediments. They account for up to 22% of bacterial amplicons and 6% of total cell counts in European and Australian coastal sediments. The analysis of a single-cell genome, metagenomic bins and the genome of the next cultured relative Woeseia oceani indicated a broad physiological range, including heterotrophy and facultative autotrophy. All tested (meta)genomes encode a truncated denitrification pathway to nitrous oxide. The broad range of energy-yielding metabolisms possibly explains the ubiquity and high abundance of Woeseiaceae/JTB255 in marine sediments, where they carry out diverse, but yet unknown ecological functions.

Microbial Single Cell Genomics [Service]

PubMed 28060363

DOI 10.1038/ismej.2016.185

Crossref 10.1038/ismej.2016.185

pii: ismej2016185
pmc: PMC5437919