Landscape approach to evaluating microbial genetic resources associated with seafloor massive sulphide deposits

微生物在环境影响评估中经常被忽视，尽管它们在生态系统功能中起着关键作用，并且作为制药和生物技术应用的遗传新颖性来源的潜力大多未被开发。要求提供资金，以开展与深海海底块状硫化物（SMS）矿床有关的微生物遗传资源潜力的景观级评价。研究结果将有助于更广泛地了解深海采矿对环境和社会的影响。目前的辩论反对采矿利益，反对主要关注底栖动物的生物多样性保护的合理关切。我们的研究将为权衡与SMS沉积物相关的潜在微生物遗传资源对社会的价值与所含金属的市场价值的讨论提供信息。SMS矿床的水平尺寸为10至100米，是由海底热液喷口的硫化物矿物沉淀形成的，并与大洋中脊的海底火山作用有关。这些沉积物拥有迄今尚未量化的微生物多样性，其中许多是极端微生物，许多肯定是独特的，对生物技术和制药部门具有很高的潜在兴趣。活跃喷口的微生物多样性和新颖性随栖息地条件（如温度和流体排出速率）而变化。当热液活动停止时，沉积的矿物本身就成为微生物生长的化学合成能源。在不活跃和风化的SMS沉积物中定殖的微生物研究较少，但在分类上与活跃喷口和周围深海中的微生物不同，并且可能代表一种单独的遗传资源。不活跃的矿床是未来采矿作业的首选目标。单一目的的SMS矿床的金属开采将严重影响甚至消除相关的遗传资源。我们将把微生物生物多样性调查、宏基因组学和基因组挖掘、3D建模和地理空间制图结合起来，对整个SMS沉积物的遗传资源潜力进行定量、景观尺度的评估。我们将首先使用元条形码（16S rRNA基因）的结果对从单个SMS沉积物中收集的样本的分类多样性和新颖性进行初步评估。然后，我们将使用基因组挖掘工具来记录从这些沉积物中重建的微生物基因组的新颖性，然后评估每个位点的生物合成基因簇（bgc）的数量和新颖性。bgc编码次生代谢物的生物合成组装，这些代谢物通常具有抗微生物和抗肿瘤的特性，这对制药行业非常有意义。了解“生物勘探指标”与栖息地类型之间的关系将使未来的研究人员和环境管理者能够使用栖息地地图来评估整个SMS沉积物的遗传资源潜力。

Microbes are often overlooked in environmental impact assessments despite their critical role in ecosystem function and mostly unexplored potential as a source of genetic novelty for pharmaceutical and biotechnological applications. Funds are requested to pioneer landscape-scale evaluations of the genetic resource potential of microbes associated with seafloor massive sulphide (SMS) deposits in the deep ocean. Results will help build a broader view of the environmental and societal consequences of deep-sea mining. The current debate opposes mining interests against the legitimate concerns of biodiversity conservation that mostly focus on benthic fauna. Our research will inform discussions that weigh the value to society of the potential microbial genetic resources associated with SMS deposits, against the market value of the contained metals. SMS deposits, which have horizontal dimensions of 10s to 100s of metres, are formed by the precipitation of sulphide minerals at seafloor hydrothermal vents, and occur in association with seafloor volcanism on mid-ocean ridges. These deposits host a hitherto unquantified diversity of microorganisms, many of them extremophiles, many certainly unique, that are of high potential interest for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors. Microbial diversity and novelty at active vents vary with habitat conditions such as temperature and rates of fluid discharge. When hydrothermally activity ceases, the deposited minerals themselves become the chemosynthetic energy source for microbial growth. Microbes colonizing inactive and weathering SMS deposits are less studied but appear taxonomically distinct from those at active vents and the surrounding deep sea, and may represent a separate genetic resource. Inactive deposits are the favoured target for future mining operations. Single purpose exploitation of SMS deposits for their metals would severely impact or even eliminate associated genetic resources. We will combine microbial biodiversity surveys, metagenomics and genome mining, with 3D modelling and geospatial mapping to develop quantitative, landscape-scale assessments of the genetic resource potential of entire SMS deposits. We will begin by using results of meta-barcoding (16S rRNA genes) for an initial assessment of the taxonomic diversity and novelty of samples collected from individual SMS deposits. We will then use genome mining tools to document the novelty of reconstructed microbial genomes from these deposits, and then evaluate the number and novelty of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) at each site. BGCs encode the biosynthetic assembly of secondary metabolites that often have anti-microbial and anti-tumour properties, of great interest to the pharmaceutical industry.  Understanding relationships between 'biosprospecting metrics' and habitat types will enable future researchers and environmental managers to use habitat maps to evaluate the genetic resource potential of entire SMS deposits.