Energy efficiency and biological interactions define the core microbiome of deep oligotrophic groundwater
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Show full item recordEditorial
Nature
Date
2021-07-12Referencia bibliográfica
Mehrshad, M... [et al.]. Energy efficiency and biological interactions define the core microbiome of deep oligotrophic groundwater. Nat Commun 12, 4253 (2021). [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24549-z]
Sponsorship
United States Department of Energy (DOE) DE-AC02-05CH11231; Swedish Research Council; European Commission 2018-04311 2017-04422 2014-4398; Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB); Crafoord Foundation 20180599 20130557; Nova Center for University Studies, Research and Development; Familjen Hellmans Stiftelse; Carl Tryggers Foundation KF16: 18; Swedish Research Council European Commission; Science for Life Laboratory; Uppsala Multidisciplinary Center for Advanced Computational Science (UPPMAX) at Uppsala University b2013127 SNIC 2019/3-22 SNIC 2020/5-19; SciLifeLab-WABI bioinformatics grant; Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation as part of the National Bioinformatics Infrastructure Sweden at SciLifeLabAbstract
While oligotrophic deep groundwaters host active microbes attuned to the low-end of the
bioenergetics spectrum, the ecological constraints on microbial niches in these ecosystems
and their consequences for microbiome convergence are unknown. Here, we provide a
genome-resolved, integrated omics analysis comparing archaeal and bacterial communities in
disconnected fracture fluids of the Fennoscandian Shield in Europe. Leveraging a dataset that
combines metagenomes, single cell genomes, and metatranscriptomes, we show that
groundwaters flowing in similar lithologies offer fixed niches that are occupied by a common
core microbiome. Functional expression analysis highlights that these deep groundwater
ecosystems foster diverse, yet cooperative communities adapted to this setting. We suggest
that these communities stimulate cooperation by expression of functions related to ecological
traits, such as aggregate or biofilm formation, while alleviating the burden on microorganisms
producing compounds or functions that provide a collective benefit by facilitating reciprocal
promiscuous metabolic partnerships with other members of the community. We hypothesize
that an episodic lifestyle enabled by reversible bacteriostatic functions ensures the subsistence
of the oligotrophic deep groundwater microbiome.