Bacterial and Archaeal Specific-Predation in the North Atlantic Basin

Authors

LM Seyler
S Tuorto
LR McGuinness
DL Gong, Virginia Institute of Marine ScienceFollow
LJ Kerkof

Document Type

Article

Department/Program

Virginia Institute of Marine Science

Publication Date

9-11-2019

Journal

Frontiers In Marine Science

Abstract

Stable isotope probing (SIP) was used to track prokaryotic and eukaryotic carbon uptake along a meridional transect (Long. 52°W) in the North Atlantic to assess if ¹³C-resource partitioning between bacteria and archaea and ¹³C-labeled eukaryotic predators could be detected. One-liter SIP microcosms were amended with ¹³C-acetate or ¹³C-urea and incubated for 48 h. Our data indicated archaea often outcompeted bacteria for ¹³C-urea while both archaea and bacteria could incorporate ¹³C-acetate. This ¹³C label could also be tracked into eukaryotic microbes. The largest number of ¹³C-labeled eukaryotic OTUs, and the greatest percentage of eukaryotic ¹³C signal, were observed in conjunction with both archaeal and bacterial ¹³C incorporation, suggesting that most eukaryotic predators do not distinguish between archaeal and bacterial prey. However, other ¹³C-eukaryotic OTUs were exclusively associated with either ¹³C-archaeal or ¹³C-bacterial OTUs. These archaeal-specific and bacterial-specific ¹³C-eukaryotic OTUs were related to known bactivorous predators including Ancyromonas, Amastigomonas, Cafeteria, and Caecitellus. Our SIP findings suggest both resource partitioning between bacteria and TACK (Thaumarchaeota, Aigarchaeota, Crenarchaeota, and Korarchaeota) archaea and selective predation by eukaryotic predators. Determining the equalizing mechanisms for co-existence in the marine environment can help map predator/prey interactions to better estimate carbon flow in the deep ocean.

DOI

10.3389/fmars.2019.00555

Keywords

archaea; bacteria; predation; competition; stable isotope probing; deep ocean

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Seyler, LM; Tuorto, S; McGuinness, LR; Gong, DL; and Kerkof, LJ, Bacterial and Archaeal Specific-Predation in the North Atlantic Basin (2019). Frontiers In Marine Science.

10.3389/fmars.2019.00555