Resumen de Periodic and Spatial Spreading of Alkanes and Alcanivorax Bacteria in Deep Waters of the Mariana Trench
Wen Li, Jiao-Mei Huang, Pei-Wei Zhang, Guo-Jie Cui, Zhan-Fei Wei, Yu-Zhi Wu, Zhao-Ming Gao, Zhuang Han, Yong Wang
In the oligotrophic environment of the Mariana Trench, alkanes as carbohydrates are important for the ecosystem, but their spatial and periodic spreading in deep waters has never been reported. Alkane-degrading bacteria such as Alcanivorax spp. are biological signals of the alkane distribution. In the present study, Alcanivorax was abundant in some waters, at depths of up to 6,000 m, in the Mariana Trench. Genomic, transcriptomic, and chemical analyses provide evidence for the presence and activities of Alcanivorax jadensis in deep sea zones. The periodic spreading of alkanes, probably from the subductive plates, might have fundamentally modified the local microbial communities, as well as perhaps the deep sea microenvironment.
