Edgcomb Virginia P.

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Last Name
Edgcomb
First Name
Virginia P.
ORCID
0000-0001-6805-381X

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 90
  • Preprint
    Identity of epibiotic bacteria on symbiontid euglenozoans in O2-depleted marine sediments : evidence for symbiont and host co-evolution
    ( 2010-06) Edgcomb, Virginia P. ; Breglia, S. A. ; Yubuki, Naoji ; Beaudoin, David J. ; Patterson, David J. ; Leander, Brian S. ; Bernhard, Joan M.
    A distinct subgroup of euglenozoans, referred to as the “Symbiontida,” has been described from oxygen-depleted and sulfidic marine environments. By definition, all members of this group carry epibionts that are intimately associated with underlying mitochondrion-derived organelles beneath the surface of the hosts. We have used molecular phylogenetic and ultrastructural evidence to identify the rod-shaped epibionts of two members of this group, Calkinsia aureus and Bihospites bacati, hand-picked from sediments from two separate oxygen-depleted, sulfidic environments. We identify their epibionts as closely related sulfur or sulfide oxidizing members of the Epsilon proteobacteria. The Epsilon proteobacteria generally play a significant role in deep-sea habitats as primary colonizers, primary producers, and/or in symbiotic associations. The epibionts likely fulfill a role in detoxifying the immediate surrounding environment for these two different hosts. The nearly identical rod-shaped epibionts on these two symbiontid hosts provides evidence for a co-evolutionary history between these two sets of partners. This hypothesis is supported by congruent tree topologies inferred from 18S and 16S rDNA from the hosts and bacterial epibionts, respectively. The eukaryotic hosts likely serve as a motile substrate that delivers the epibionts to the ideal locations with respect to the oxic/anoxic interface whereby their growth rates can be maximized, perhaps also allowing the host to cultivate a food source. Because symbiontid isolates and additional SSU rDNA gene sequences from this clade have now been recovered from many locations worldwide, the Symbiontida are likely more widespread and diverse than presently known.
  • Preprint
    Effect of oxygen minimum zone formation on communities of marine protists
    ( 2012-01-10) Orsi, William D. ; Song, Young C. ; Hallam, Steven J. ; Edgcomb, Virginia P.
    Changes in ocean temperature and circulation patterns compounded by human activities are leading to oxygen minimum zone expansion with concomitant alteration in nutrient and climate active trace gas cycling. Here, we report the response of microbial eukaryote populations to seasonal changes in water column oxygen-deficiency using Saanich Inlet, a seasonally anoxic fjord on the coast of Vancouver Island British Columbia, as a model ecosystem. We combine small subunit ribosomal RNA gene sequencing approaches with multivariate statistical methods to reveal shifts in operational taxonomic units during successive stages of seasonal stratification and renewal. A meta-analysis is used to identify common and unique patterns of community composition between Saanich Inlet and the anoxic/sulfidic Cariaco Basin (Venezuela) and Framvaren Fjord (Norway) to show shared and unique responses of microbial eukaryotes to oxygen and sulfide in these three environments. Our analyses also reveal temporal fluctuations in rare populations of microbial eukaryotes, particularly anaerobic ciliates, that may be of significant importance to the biogeochemical cycling of methane in oxygen minimum zones.
  • Preprint
    Denitrification likely catalyzed by endobionts in an allogromiid foraminifer
    ( 2011-10) Bernhard, Joan M. ; Edgcomb, Virginia P. ; Casciotti, Karen L. ; McIlvin, Matthew R. ; Beaudoin, David J.
    Nitrogen can be a limiting macronutrient for carbon uptake by the marine biosphere. The process of denitrification (conversion of nitrate to gaseous compounds, including N2) removes bioavailable nitrogen, particularly in marine sediments, making it a key factor in the marine nitrogen budget. Benthic foraminifera reportedly perform complete denitrification, a process previously considered nearly exclusively performed by bacteria and archaea. If the ability to denitrify is widespread among these diverse and abundant protists, a paradigm shift is required for biogeochemistry and marine microbial ecology. However, to date, the mechanisms of foraminiferal denitrification are unclear and it is possible that the ability to perform complete denitrification is due to symbiont metabolism in some foraminiferal species. Using sequence analysis and GeneFISH, we show that for a symbiont-bearing foraminifer, the potential for denitrification resides in the endobionts. Results also identify the endobionts as denitrifying pseudomonads and show that the allogromiid accumulates nitrate intracellularly, presumably for use in denitrification. Endobionts have been observed within many foraminiferal species, and in the case of associations with denitrifying bacteria, may provide fitness for survival in anoxic conditions. These associations may have been a driving force for early foraminiferal diversification, which is thought to have occurred in the Neoproterozoic when anoxia was widespread.
  • Article
    Ultrastructure and molecular phylogeny of Calkinsia aureus : cellular identity of a novel clade of deep-sea euglenozoans with epibiotic bacteria
    (BioMed Central, 2009-01-27) Yubuki, Naoji ; Edgcomb, Virginia P. ; Bernhard, Joan M. ; Leander, Brian S.
    The Euglenozoa is a large group of eukaryotic flagellates with diverse modes of nutrition. The group consists of three main subclades – euglenids, kinetoplastids and diplonemids – that have been confirmed with both molecular phylogenetic analyses and a combination of shared ultrastructural characteristics. Several poorly understood lineages of putative euglenozoans live in anoxic environments, such as Calkinsia aureus, and have yet to be characterized at the molecular and ultrastructural levels. Improved understanding of these lineages is expected to shed considerable light onto the ultrastructure of prokaryote-eukaryote symbioses and the associated cellular innovations found within the Euglenozoa and beyond. We collected Calkinsia aureus from core samples taken from the low-oxygen seafloor of the Santa Barbara Basin (580 – 592 m depth), California. These biflagellates were distinctively orange in color and covered with a dense array of elongated epibiotic bacteria. Serial TEM sections through individually prepared cells demonstrated that C. aureus shares derived ultrastructural features with other members of the Euglenozoa (e.g. the same paraxonemal rods, microtubular root system and extrusomes). However, C. aureus also possessed several novel ultrastructural systems, such as modified mitochondria (i.e. hydrogenosome-like), an "extrusomal pocket", a highly organized extracellular matrix beneath epibiotic bacteria and a complex flagellar transition zone. Molecular phylogenies inferred from SSU rDNA sequences demonstrated that C. aureus grouped strongly within the Euglenozoa and with several environmental sequences taken from low-oxygen sediments in various locations around the world. Calkinsia aureus possesses all of the synapomorphies for the Euglenozoa, but lacks traits that are specific to any of the three previously recognized euglenozoan subgroups. Molecular phylogenetic analyses of C. aureus demonstrate that this lineage is a member of a novel euglenozoan subclade consisting of uncharacterized cells living in low-oxygen environments. Our ultrastructural description of C. aureus establishes the cellular identity of a fourth group of euglenozoans, referred to as the "Symbiontida".
  • Article
    Environmental factors shaping bacterial, archaeal and fungal community structure in hydrothermal sediments of Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California
    (Public Library of Science, 2021-09-08) Ramírez, Gustavo A. ; Mara, Paraskevi ; Sehein, Taylor R. ; Wegener, Gunter ; Chambers, Christopher R. ; Joye, Samantha B. ; Peterson, Richard N. ; Philippe, Aurélie ; Burgaud, Gaëtan ; Edgcomb, Virginia P. ; Teske, Andreas P.
    The flanking regions of Guaymas Basin, a young marginal rift basin located in the Gulf of California, are covered with thick sediment layers that are hydrothermally altered due to magmatic intrusions. To explore environmental controls on microbial community structure in this complex environment, we analyzed site- and depth-related patterns of microbial community composition (bacteria, archaea, and fungi) in hydrothermally influenced sediments with different thermal conditions, geochemical regimes, and extent of microbial mats. We compared communities in hot hydrothermal sediments (75-100°C at ~40 cm depth) covered by orange-pigmented Beggiatoaceae mats in the Cathedral Hill area, temperate sediments (25-30°C at ~40 cm depth) covered by yellow sulfur precipitates and filamentous sulfur oxidizers at the Aceto Balsamico location, hot sediments (>115°C at ~40 cm depth) with orange-pigmented mats surrounded by yellow and white mats at the Marker 14 location, and background, non-hydrothermal sediments (3.8°C at ~45 cm depth) overlain with ambient seawater. Whereas bacterial and archaeal communities are clearly structured by site-specific in-situ thermal gradients and geochemical conditions, fungal communities are generally structured by sediment depth. Unexpectedly, chytrid sequence biosignatures are ubiquitous in surficial sediments whereas deeper sediments contain diverse yeasts and filamentous fungi. In correlation analyses across different sites and sediment depths, fungal phylotypes correlate to each other to a much greater degree than Bacteria and Archaea do to each other or to fungi, further substantiating that site-specific in-situ thermal gradients and geochemical conditions that control bacteria and archaea do not extend to fungi.
  • Article
    Dynamic accretion beneath a slow-spreading ridge segment: IODP hole 1473A and the Atlantis Bank oceanic core complex
    (American Geophysical Union, 2019-11-07) Dick, Henry J. B. ; MacLeod, Christopher J. ; Blum, Peter ; Abe, Natsue ; Blackman, Donna K. ; Bowles, Julie A. ; Cheadle, Michael J. ; Cho, K. ; Ciazela, Jakub ; Deans, Jeremy ; Edgcomb, Virginia P. ; Ferrando, Carlotta ; France, Lydéric ; Ghosh, Biswajit ; Ildefonse, Benoit ; John, Barbara E. ; Kendrick, Mark A. ; Koepke, Juergen ; Leong, James ; Liu, Chuanzhou ; Ma, Qiang ; Morishita, Tomoaki ; Morris, Antony ; Natland, James H. ; Nozaka, Toshio ; Pluemper, Oliver ; Sanfilippo, Alessio ; Sylvan, Jason B. ; Tivey, Maurice A. ; Tribuzio, Riccardo ; Viegas, G.
    809 deep IODP Hole U1473A at Atlantis Bank, SWIR, is 2.2 km from 1,508‐m Hole 735B and 1.4 from 158‐m Hole 1105A. With mapping, it provides the first 3‐D view of the upper levels of a 660‐km2 lower crustal batholith. It is laterally and vertically zoned, representing a complex interplay of cyclic intrusion, and ongoing deformation, with kilometer‐scale upward and lateral migration of interstial melt. Transform wall dives over the gabbro‐peridotite contact found only evolved gabbro intruded directly into the mantle near the transform. There was no high‐level melt lens, rather the gabbros crystallized at depth, and then emplaced into the zone of diking by diapiric rise of a crystal mush followed by crystal‐plastic deformation and faulting. The residues to mass balance the crust to a parent melt composition lie at depth below the center of the massif—likely near the crust‐mantle boundary. Thus, basalts erupted to the seafloor from >1,550 mbsf. By contrast, the Mid‐Atlantic Ridge lower crust drilled at 23°N and at Atlantis Massif experienced little high‐temperature deformation and limited late‐stage melt transport. They contain primitive cumulates and represent direct intrusion, storage, and crystallization of parental MORB in thinner crust below the dike‐gabbro transition. The strong asymmetric spreading of the SWIR to the south was due to fault capture, with the northern rift valley wall faults cutoff by a detachment fault that extended across most of the zone of intrusion. This caused rapid migration of the plate boundary to the north, while the large majority of the lower crust to spread south unroofing Atlantis Bank and uplifting it into the rift mountains.
  • Article
    Deep subsurface microbiology : a guide to the research topic papers
    (Frontiers Media, 2013-05-16) Teske, Andreas ; Biddle, Jennifer F. ; Edgcomb, Virginia P. ; Schippers, Axel
    Deep subsurface microbiology is a rising field in geomicrobiology, environmental microbiology and microbial ecology that focuses on the molecular detection and quantification, cultivation, biogeographic examination, and distribution of bacteria, archaea, and eukarya that permeate the subsurface biosphere. The deep biosphere includes a variety of subsurface habitats, such as terrestrial deep aquifer systems or mines, deeply buried hydrocarbon reservoirs, marine sediments and the basaltic ocean crust. The deep subsurface biosphere abounds with uncultured, only recently discovered and—at best—incompletely understood microbial populations. So far, microbial cells and DNA remain detectable at sediment depths of more than 1 km and life appears limited mostly by heat in the deep subsurface. Severe energy limitation, either as electron acceptor or donor shortage, and scarcity of microbially degradable organic carbon sources are among the evolutionary pressures that may shape the genomic and physiological repertoire of the deep subsurface biosphere. Its biogeochemical importance in long-term carbon sequestration, subsurface elemental cycling and crustal aging, is a major focus of current research at the interface of microbiology, geochemistry, and biosphere/geosphere evolution.
  • Article
    CRISPR/Cas9-induced disruption of Bodo saltans paraflagellar rod-2 gene reveals its importance for cell survival
    (Society for Applied Microbiology, 2022-01-31) Gomaa, Fatma ; Li, Zhu-Hong ; Beaudoin, David J. ; Alzan, Heba ; Girguis, Peter R. ; Docampo, Roberto ; Edgcomb, Virginia P.
    Developing transfection protocols for marine protists is an emerging field that will allow the functional characterization of protist genes and their roles in organism responses to the environment. We developed a CRISPR/Cas9 editing protocol for Bodo saltans, a free-living kinetoplastid with tolerance to both marine and freshwater conditions and a close non-parasitic relative of trypanosomatids. Our results show that SaCas9/single-guide RNA (sgRNA) ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex-mediated disruption of the paraflagellar rod 2 gene (BsPFR2) was achieved using electroporation-mediated transfection. The use of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing can increase the efficiency of targeted homologous recombination when a repair DNA template is provided. Our sequence analysis suggests two mechanisms for repairing double-strand breaks in B. saltans are active; homologous-directed repair (HDR) utilizing an exogenous DNA template that carries an antibiotic resistance gene and likley non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). However, HDR was only achieved when a single (vs. multiple) SaCas9 RNP complex was provided. Furthermore, the biallelic knockout of BsPFR2 was detrimental for the cell, highlighting its essential role for cell survival because it facilitates the movement of food particles into the cytostome. Our Cas9/sgRNA RNP complex protocol provides a new tool for assessing gene functions in B. saltans and perhaps similar protists with polycistronic transcription.
  • Preprint
    Comparison of Niskin vs. in situ approaches for analysis of gene expression in deep Mediterranean Sea water samples
    ( 2014-10) Edgcomb, Virginia P. ; Taylor, Craig D. ; Pachiadaki, Maria G. ; Honjo, Susumu ; Engstrom, Ivory B. ; Yakimov, Michail M.
    Obtaining an accurate picture of microbial processes occurring in situ is essential for our understanding of marine biogeochemical cycles of global importance. Water samples are typically collected at depth and returned to the sea surface for processing and downstream experiments. Metatranscriptome analysis is one powerful approach for investigating metabolic activities of microorganisms in their habitat and which can be informative for determining responses of microbiota to disturbances such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. For studies of microbial processes occurring in the deep sea, however, sample handling, pressure, and other changes during sample recovery can subject microorganisms to physiological changes that alter the expression profile of labile messenger RNA. Here we report a comparison of gene expression profiles for whole microbial communities in a bathypelagic water column sample collected in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea using Niskin bottle sample collection and a new water column sampler for studies of marine microbial ecology, the Microbial Sampler – In Situ Incubation Device (MS-SID). For some taxa, gene expression profiles from samples collected and preserved 33 in situ were significantly different from potentially more stressful Niskin sampling and 34 preservation on deck. Some categories of transcribed genes also appear to be affected by sample 35 handling more than others. This suggests that for future studies of marine microbial ecology, 36 particularly targeting deep sea samples, an in situ sample collection and preservation approach 37 should be considered.
  • Preprint
    Gene expression in the deep biosphere
    ( 2013-04-23) Orsi, William D. ; Edgcomb, Virginia P. ; Christman, Glenn D. ; Biddle, Jennifer F.
    Scientific ocean drilling has revealed a deep biosphere of widespread microbial life in sub-seafloor sediment. Microbial metabolism in the marine subsurface likely plays an important role in global biogeochemical cycles1-3 but deep biosphere activities are not well understood1. Here, we describe and analyze the first subseafloor metatranscriptomes from anaerobic Peru Margin sediment up to 159 meters below seafloor (mbsf) represented by over 1 billion cDNA sequence reads. Anaerobic metabolism of amino acids, carbohydrates, and lipids appear to be dominant metabolic processes, and profiles of dissimilatory sulfite reductase (Dsr) transcripts are consistent with porewater sulfate concentration profiles1. Moreover, transcripts involved in cell division increase as a function of microbial cell concentration, indicating that increases in subseafloor microbial abundance are a function of cell division across all three domains of life. These data support calculations1 and models4 of subseafloor microbial metabolism and represent the first holistic picture of deep biosphere activities.
  • Article
    Protist community grazing on prokaryotic prey in deep ocean water masses
    (Public Library of Science, 2015-04-20) Rocke, Emma ; Pachiadaki, Maria G. ; Cobban, Alec ; Kujawinski, Elizabeth B. ; Edgcomb, Virginia P.
    Oceanic protist grazing at mesopelagic and bathypelagic depths, and their subsequent effects on trophic links between eukaryotes and prokaryotes, are not well constrained. Recent studies show evidence of higher than expected grazing activity by protists down to mesopelagic depths. This study provides the first exploration of protist grazing in the bathypelagic North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW). Grazing was measured throughout the water column at three stations in the South Atlantic using fluorescently-labeled prey analogues. Grazing in the deep Antarctic Intermediate water (AAIW) and NADW at all three stations removed 3.79% ± 1.72% to 31.14% ± 8.24% of the standing prokaryote stock. These results imply that protist grazing may be a significant source of labile organic carbon at certain meso- and bathypelagic depths.
  • Article
    Microbial hydrocarbon degradation in Guaymas Basin—exploring the roles and potential interactions of fungi and sulfate-reducing bacteria
    (Frontiers Media, 2022-03-09) Edgcomb, Virginia P. ; Teske, Andreas P. ; Mara, Paraskevi
    Hydrocarbons are degraded by specialized types of bacteria, archaea, and fungi. Their occurrence in marine hydrocarbon seeps and sediments prompted a study of their role and their potential interactions, using the hydrocarbon-rich hydrothermal sediments of Guaymas Basin in the Gulf of California as a model system. This sedimented vent site is characterized by localized hydrothermal circulation that introduces seawater sulfate into methane- and hydrocarbon-rich sediments, and thus selects for diverse hydrocarbon-degrading communities of which methane, alkane- and aromatics-oxidizing sulfate-reducing bacteria and archaea have been especially well-studied. Current molecular and cultivation surveys are detecting diverse fungi in Guaymas Basin hydrothermal sediments, and draw attention to possible fungal-bacterial interactions. In this Hypothesis and Theory article, we report on background, recent results and outcomes, and underlying hypotheses that guide current experiments on this topic in the Edgcomb and Teske labs in 2021, and that we will revisit during our ongoing investigations of bacterial, archaeal, and fungal communities in the deep sedimentary subsurface of Guaymas Basin.
  • Article
    Massively parallel tag sequencing reveals the complexity of anaerobic marine protistan communities
    (BioMed Central, 2009-11-03) Stoeck, Thorsten ; Behnke, Anke ; Christen, Richard ; Amaral-Zettler, Linda A. ; Rodriguez-Mora, Maria J. ; Chistoserdov, Andrei Y. ; Orsi, William D. ; Edgcomb, Virginia P.
    Recent advances in sequencing strategies make possible unprecedented depth and scale of sampling for molecular detection of microbial diversity. Two major paradigm-shifting discoveries include the detection of bacterial diversity that is one to two orders of magnitude greater than previous estimates, and the discovery of an exciting 'rare biosphere' of molecular signatures ('species') of poorly understood ecological significance. We applied a high-throughput parallel tag sequencing (454 sequencing) protocol adopted for eukaryotes to investigate protistan community complexity in two contrasting anoxic marine ecosystems (Framvaren Fjord, Norway; Cariaco deep-sea basin, Venezuela). Both sampling sites have previously been scrutinized for protistan diversity by traditional clone library construction and Sanger sequencing. By comparing these clone library data with 454 amplicon library data, we assess the efficiency of high-throughput tag sequencing strategies. We here present a novel, highly conservative bioinformatic analysis pipeline for the processing of large tag sequence data sets.The analyses of ca. 250,000 sequence reads revealed that the number of detected Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) far exceeded previous richness estimates from the same sites based on clone libraries and Sanger sequencing. More than 90% of this diversity was represented by OTUs with less than 10 sequence tags. We detected a substantial number of taxonomic groups like Apusozoa, Chrysomerophytes, Centroheliozoa, Eustigmatophytes, hyphochytriomycetes, Ichthyosporea, Oikomonads, Phaeothamniophytes, and rhodophytes which remained undetected by previous clone library-based diversity surveys of the sampling sites. The most important innovations in our newly developed bioinformatics pipeline employ (i) BLASTN with query parameters adjusted for highly variable domains and a complete database of public ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequences for taxonomic assignments of tags; (ii) a clustering of tags at k differences (Levenshtein distance) with a newly developed algorithm enabling very fast OTU clustering for large tag sequence data sets; and (iii) a novel parsing procedure to combine the data from individual analyses. Our data highlight the magnitude of the under-sampled 'protistan gap' in the eukaryotic tree of life. This study illustrates that our current understanding of the ecological complexity of protist communities, and of the global species richness and genome diversity of protists, is severely limited. Even though 454 pyrosequencing is not a panacea, it allows for more comprehensive insights into the diversity of protistan communities, and combined with appropriate statistical tools, enables improved ecological interpretations of the data and projections of global diversity.
  • Dataset
    Sediment hydrocarbon concentrations in Alvin pushcore samples from Guaymas Basin hydrothermal vents, RV/Atlantis cruise AT42-05, Nov. 2018
    (Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO). Contact: bco-dmo-data@whoi.edu, 2020-12-31) Edgcomb, Virginia P. ; Teske, Andreas P.
    This dataset includes sediment hydrocarbon concentrations from samples collected using Alvin pushcores at Guaymas Basin hydrothermal vents, RV/Atlantis cruise AT42-05, Nov. 2018. For a complete list of measurements, refer to the full dataset description in the supplemental file 'Dataset_description.pdf'. The most current version of this dataset is available at: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/773297
  • Dataset
    Supplementary Table 3A: Concentration of archaeal and bacterial lipid biomarkers, ratio of core vs intact polar lipids and average chain length of bacterial dietherglycerol lipids.
    (Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO). Contact: bco-dmo-data@whoi.edu, 2020-07-08) Edgcomb, Virginia P.
    Overview of archaeal and bacterial lipid biomarkers and cell counts. Concentration of archaeal and bacterial lipid biomarkers, ratio of core vs intact polar lipids and average chain length of bacterial dietherglycerol lipids. Samples taken on board of the R/V JOIDES Resolution between November 30, 2015 and January 30, 2016 For a complete list of measurements, refer to the full dataset description in the supplemental file 'Dataset_description.pdf'. The most current version of this dataset is available at: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/811268
  • Dataset
    Supplementary Table 3B: Replicate cell counts for the 11 samples and alkaline phosphatase activity measurements available for any of the 11 samples
    (Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO). Contact: bco-dmo-data@whoi.edu, 2020-07-08) Edgcomb, Virginia P.
    Supplementary Table 3B: Overview of archaeal and bacterial lipid biomarkers and cell counts. Replicate cell counts for the 11 samples and alkaline phosphatase activity measurements available for any of the 11 samples. Samples were taken on board of the JOIDES Resolution between November 30, 2015 and January 30, 2016 in the SW Indian Ridge. For a complete list of measurements, refer to the full dataset description in the supplemental file 'Dataset_description.pdf'. The most current version of this dataset is available at: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/811483
  • Dataset
    Porewater nutrient, sulfide, and sulfate concentrations in Alvin pushcore samples collected from Guaymas Basin hydrothermal vents during R/V Atlantis cruise AT42-05 in November 2018 and analyzed at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology
    (Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO). Contact: bco-dmo-data@whoi.edu, 2020-08-24) Wegener, Gunter ; Teske, Andreas P. ; Edgcomb, Virginia P.
    Porewater nutrient, sulfide, and sulfate (NH4+, NO2-, NO3-, PO43-, SiO42-, Cl-, S2-, SO24-) concentrations in Alvin pushcore samples collected from Guaymas Basin hydrothermal vents during R/V Atlantis cruise AT42-05 in November 2018. This dataset was obtained at the Max-Planck-Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany. For a complete list of measurements, refer to the full dataset description in the supplemental file 'Dataset_description.pdf'. The most current version of this dataset is available at: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/816549
  • Dataset
    Porewater nutrient concentrations (NO3+NO2, NH4, and PO4) from pushcore samples collected at Guaymas Basin hydrothermal vents via Alvin dives on RV/Atlantis cruise AT42-05, Nov. 2018
    (Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO). Contact: bco-dmo-data@whoi.edu, 2019-07-31) Edgcomb, Virginia P. ; Teske, Andreas P.
    Porewater nutrient concentrations from pushcore samples collected at two locations in the Guaymas Basin hydrothermal vents region during Alvin dives on RV/Atlantis cruise AT42-05, Nov. 2018. NO3+NO2, NH4, and PO4 concentrations at different depths within the cores are reported. For a complete list of measurements, refer to the full dataset description in the supplemental file 'Dataset_description.pdf'. The most current version of this dataset is available at: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/773129
  • Dataset
    Hydrocarbon compounds identified and measured in sediments and porewaters using gas chromatography from R/V JOIDES Resolution IODP-385 cruise in the Guaymas Basin between September and November, 2019.
    (Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO). Contact: bco-dmo-data@whoi.edu, 2022-08-12) Edgcomb, Virginia P. ; Teske, Andreas
    Hydrocarbon compounds identified and measured in sediments and porewaters using gas chromatography from R/V JOIDES Resolution IODP-385 cruise in the Guaymas Basin between September and November, 2019 For a complete list of measurements, refer to the full dataset description in the supplemental file 'Dataset_description.pdf'. The most current version of this dataset is available at: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/869407
  • Article
    Ecogenomics reveals viral communities across the Challenger Deep oceanic trench
    (Nature Research, 2022-10-04) Zhou, Ying-Li ; Mara, Paraskevi ; Vik, Dean ; Edgcomb, Virginia P ; Sullivan, Matthew B ; Wang, Yong
    Despite the environmental challenges and nutrient scarcity, the geographically isolated Challenger Deep in Mariana trench, is considered a dynamic hotspot of microbial activity. Hadal viruses are the least explored microorganisms in Challenger Deep, while their taxonomic and functional diversity and ecological impact on deep-sea biogeochemistry are poorly described. Here, we collect 13 sediment cores from slope and bottom-axis sites across the Challenger Deep (down to ~11 kilometers depth), and identify 1,628 previously undescribed viral operational taxonomic units at species level. Community-wide analyses reveals 1,299 viral genera and distinct viral diversity across the trench, which is significantly higher at the bottom-axis vs. slope sites of the trench. 77% of these viral genera have not been previously identified in soils, deep-sea sediments and other oceanic settings. Key prokaryotes involved in hadal carbon and nitrogen cycling are predicted to be potential hosts infected by these viruses. The detected putative auxiliary metabolic genes suggest that viruses at Challenger Deep could modulate the carbohydrate and sulfur metabolisms of their potential hosts, and stabilize host’s cell membranes under extreme hydrostatic pressures. Our results shed light on hadal viral metabolic capabilities, contribute to understanding deep sea ecology and on functional adaptions of hadal viruses for future research.