Vertical stratification of microbial communities in the Red Sea revealed by 16S rDNA pyrosequencing

• Published in: The ISME Journal Vol. 5; no. 3; pp. 507 - 518
• Main Authors: Qian, Pei-Yuan, Wang, Yong, Lee, On On, Lau, Stanley C K, Yang, Jiangke, Lafi, Feras F, Al-Suwailem, Abdulaziz, Wong, Tim YH
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.03.2011; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/158/2446/2447; 631/158/670; 631/326/2565/2142; Adaptations; Archaea; Archaea - classification; Archaea - genetics; Archaea - physiology; Bacteria - classification; Bacteria - genetics; Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; Biodiversity; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Classification; Community structure; Crenarchaeota; Cyanobacteria; Desulfurococcales; DNA, Archaeal - chemistry; DNA, Archaeal - genetics; Ecology; Euryarchaeota; Evolutionary Biology; Habitat; Halobacteriales; Indian Ocean; Life Sciences; Marine environment; Microbial activity; Microbial Ecology; Microbial Genetics and Genomics; Microbiology; Original; original-article; Phylogeny; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; Proteobacteria; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics; rRNA 16S; Sampling; Seawater - chemistry; Seawater - microbiology; Surface water; Vertical distribution; Water column; Water depth; Indian Ocean; water column; Red Sea; pyrosequencing; amplicons; bacteria; archaea
• ISSN: 1751-7362; 1751-7370
• DOI: 10.1038/ismej.2010.112

The ecosystems of the Red Sea are among the least-explored microbial habitats in the marine environment. In this study, we investigated the microbial communities in the water column overlying the Atlantis II Deep and Discovery Deep in the Red Sea. Taxonomic classification of pyrosequencing reads of the 16S rRNA gene amplicons showed vertical stratification of microbial diversity from the surface water to 1500 m below the surface. Significant differences in both bacterial and archaeal diversity were observed in the upper (2 and 50 m) and deeper layers (200 and 1500 m). There were no obvious differences in community structure at the same depth for the two sampling stations. The bacterial community in the upper layer was dominated by Cyanobacteria whereas the deeper layer harbored a large proportion of Proteobacteria. Among Archaea, Euryarchaeota, especially Halobacteriales, were dominant in the upper layer but diminished drastically in the deeper layer where Desulfurococcales belonging to Crenarchaeota became the dominant group. The results of our study indicate that the microbial communities sampled in this study are different from those identified in water column in other parts of the world. The depth-wise compositional variation in the microbial communities is attributable to their adaptations to the various environments in the Red Sea.