BSS and beyond - functional markers to unravel the ecology of anaerobic hydrocarbon degraders in the environment

直到最近，对环境系统中厌氧碳氢化合物降解所涉及的微生物关键角色的特性和多样性的了解仍然几乎完全基于相对较少的实验室培养。为了解决这个问题，我们最近为富马酸添加分解代谢基因建立了一个功能标记概念，这些基因参与了许多碳氢化合物的厌氧降解。我们现在希望在一种创新的烟火标签测序方法中实现这一点，以快速和全面地评估环境样品中厌氧烃降解物的多样性。这一方法被用来研究厌氧烃降解菌群落结构和功能之间的中心联系。因此，我们验证了我们的假设，即越多样化的降解者群落也拥有更高水平的功能冗余，因此对水文地球化学栖息地动态的影响更强。此外，我们将探讨可能导致在不同污染生态系统中建立或多或少不同的降解者群落的核心生态机制。因此，我们将为拟议的DFG优先方案的主要目标做出贡献，识别自然系统中厌氧烃降解的相关微生物关键角色的真正多样性，并阐明作为碳氢化合物降解微生物栖息地的污染物羽流的生态。

Until recently, the understanding of the identity and diversity of microbial key players involved in anaerobic hydrocarbon degradation in environmental systems remained almost exclusively based on a relatively small number of laboratory cultures. To address this problem, we have recently established a functional marker concept for fumarate-adding catabolic genes involved in the anaerobic degradation of many hydrocarbons. We now want to implement this in an innovative pyrotag sequencing approach to rapidly and comprehensively assess anaerobic hydrocarbon degrader diversities in environmental samples. This approach is employed to investigate central links between structure and functioning of anaerobic hydrocarbon degrader communities. Thus we test our hypothesis that more diverse degrader communities also harbour a greater level of functional redundancy, and thus are more robust to hydrogeochemical habitat dynamics. Moreover, we will address central ecological mechanisms that may actually cause the establishment of more or less diverse degrader communities in different contaminated ecosystems. Thus we will contribute to primary objectives of the proposed DFG Priority Programme, the identification of the true diversity of relevant microbial key-players in anaerobic hydrocarbon degradation in natural systems, and the elucidation of the ecology of contaminant plumes as a habitat for hydrocarbon degrading microbes.