Microbial activity in the crustal deep biosphere

地壳深层生物圈中的微生物活动

• 批准号: 1737017
• 负责人: Beth Orcutt
• 金额: $ 45.5万
• 依托单位: Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1737017&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Microbial; activity; crustal; deep; biosphere

The marine deep biosphere is the habitat for life existing under the sea floor. The zone has remarkably low energy sources creating a paradox of how life can persist there. Resolving this energy paradox is a grand challenge in deep biosphere research. The Juan de Fuca Ridge flank off the coast of Washington, USA, is an accessible, low energy environment making it an attractive location for addressing this challenge. A series of experiments will be conducted on the seafloor at the Juan de Fuca Ridge flank, using established subseafloor observatories that access the crustal deep biosphere, to provide the first direct in situ measurement of microbial activity in the crustal subsurface. This project will provide essential information about the ability of life to survive under conditions that we are not able to replicate in the laboratory, but that are increasingly important for understanding microbial community interaction in the environment. This information can then be used in models of global microbial activity for estimating the impact of this biosphere on elemental cycling, transforming our understanding of microbial processes within this vast subseafloor habitat. To communicate these discoveries to the public, the project will include a ship-to-shore outreach program during the cruise. In addition public lectures will be presented, and an interactive display of deep-sea video footage will be set up for the annual public Open House at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine. Diverse undergraduate students and a postdoctoral researcher will be recruited to participate in the research and public outreach activities.This project proposes to leverage existing subsurface infrastructure on the eastern flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge with advances in single-cell based molecular and geochemical approaches to make fundamental new discoveries about the activity of life in the deep crustal biosphere. During a two-week research cruise, the research team will incubate crustal fluids in situ and in the laboratory with labeled substrates for tracking single-cell activity, coupled with radioisotope tracer activity and potentiostat measurements, with the objective of determining in situ and potential rates of activity and cellular physiology. The research will also identify which metabolisms active microorganisms utilize under in situ and laboratory conditions, the rates of these processes, and the microorganisms involved. The results are expected to provide explicit hypothesis testing of microbial activity and in situ microbial growth rates from the crustal deep biosphere to transform understanding of microbial activity in the crustal deep biosphere and generate critical information about the ability of life to survive under low energy conditions.

海洋深层生物圈是海底生物的栖息地。这个区域的能量来源非常低，这就造成了生命如何在那里生存的悖论。解决这个能量悖论是深层生物圈研究的一个巨大挑战。Juan de Fuca Ridge位于美国华盛顿海岸的侧翼，是一个可达的低能耗环境，使其成为解决这一挑战的有吸引力的地点。将在胡安·德·富卡山脊侧翼的海底进行一系列实验，利用已建立的进入地壳深层生物圈的海底观测站，首次对地壳地下的微生物活动进行直接的现场测量。这个项目将提供生命在我们无法在实验室中复制的条件下生存能力的基本信息，但这对理解环境中微生物群落的相互作用越来越重要。这些信息可以用于全球微生物活动模型，以估计这个生物圈对元素循环的影响，从而改变我们对这个巨大的海底栖息地内微生物过程的理解。为了向公众传达这些发现，该项目将包括在巡航期间的船到岸外展计划。此外，还将举办公开讲座，并在缅因州毕格罗海洋科学实验室举办一年一度的公众开放日，以互动方式展示深海视频片段。我们将招募不同类型的本科生和一名博士后参与研究和公众宣传活动。该项目建议利用Juan de Fuca Ridge东侧现有的地下基础设施，利用单细胞分子和地球化学方法的进步，对地壳深层生物圈中的生命活动做出新的发现。在为期两周的研究巡航期间，研究小组将在现场和实验室用标记底物培养地壳流体，以跟踪单细胞活动，并结合放射性同位素示踪剂活动和恒电位器测量，目的是确定现场和潜在的活动率和细胞生理学。该研究还将确定在原位和实验室条件下活性微生物利用的代谢，这些过程的速率以及所涉及的微生物。这些结果有望为地壳深层生物圈的微生物活动和原位微生物生长速率提供明确的假设检验，从而改变对地壳深层生物圈微生物活动的认识，并产生有关生命在低能量条件下生存能力的关键信息。

项目成果

Synthesis of publicly-available sequence datasets of the 16S rRNA gene in environmental DNA extracted from seafloor and subseafloor samples from the Dorado outcrop, Lō'ihi Seamount, North Pond, and Juan de Fuca Ridge flank

从 Dorado 露头、LÅihi 海山、North Pond 和 Juan de Fuca Ridge 侧翼的海底和海底样本中提取的环境 DNA 中 16S rRNA 基因的公开序列数据集的合成

• DOI: 10.26008/bco-dmo.789136.1
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office
• 作者: Orcutt, Beth;D'Angelo, Timothy
• 通讯作者: D'Angelo, Timothy

Carboxydotrophy potential of uncultivated Hydrothermarchaeota from the subseafloor crustal biosphere

• DOI: 10.1038/s41396-019-0352-9
• 发表时间: 2019-06-01
• 期刊: ISME JOURNAL
• 影响因子: 11
• 作者: Carr, Stephanie A.;Jungbluth, Sean P.;Orcutt, Beth N.
• 通讯作者: Orcutt, Beth N.

Using Cathodic Poised Potential Experiments to Investigate Extracellular Electron Transport in the Crustal Deep Biosphere of North Pond, Mid-Atlantic Ridge

• DOI: 10.3389/fenvs.2020.00011
• 发表时间: 2020-02
• 期刊: Proceedings of the 23rd ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining
• 作者: Rose M. Jones;T. D’Angelo;B. Orcutt