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Distribution, community composition and potential metabolic activity of bacterioplankton in an urbanized Mediterranean Sea coastal zone
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Richa, Kumari, Balestra, Cecilia, Piredda, Roberta, Benes, Vladimir, Borra, Marco, Passarelli, Augusto, Margiotta, Francesca, Saggiomo, Maria, Biffali, Elio, Sanges, Remo, Scanlan, David J. and Casotti, Raffaella (2017) Distribution, community composition and potential metabolic activity of bacterioplankton in an urbanized Mediterranean Sea coastal zone. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 83 (17). e00494-17. doi:10.1128/AEM.00494-17
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WRAP-distribution-community-composition-metabolic-bacterioplankton-Scanlan-2017.pdf - Accepted Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (2039Kb) | Preview |
Official URL: http://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.00494-17
Abstract
Bacterioplankton are fundamental components of marine ecosystems and also influence the entire biosphere by contributing to the global biogeochemical cycles of key elements. Yet, there is a significant gap in knowledge about their diversity, specific activity and environmental factors that shape their community composition and function. Here, the distribution and diversity of surface bacterioplankton along the coastline of the Gulf of Naples (GON, Italy) was investigated using flow cytometry coupled with high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA gene (rDNA). Heterotrophic bacteria numerically dominated the bacterioplankton, and comprised mainly Alphaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria and Bacteroidetes Distinct communities occupied river-influenced, coastal and offshore sites, as indicated by Bray-Curtis dissimilarity, distance metric (UniFrac), LefSe and multivariate analyses. Heterogeneity in diversity and community composition was mainly due to salinity and changes in environmental conditions across sites as defined by nutrient and chlorophyll a concentrations. Bacterioplankton communities were composed of a few dominant taxa and a large proportion (92%) of rare taxa (here defined as OTUs accounting for <0.1% of total sequence abundances), the majority of which were unique to each site. The relationship between 16S rRNA and 16S rDNA, i.e. between potential metabolic activity and abundance, was positive for the whole community. However, analysis of individual Operational Taxonomical Units (OTU) revealed high 16S rRNA:rDNA ratios for most (71.6±16.7%) of the rare taxa, suggesting that these low abundance organisms were potentially active and hence might be playing an important role in ecosystem diversity and functioning in the GON.Importance The study of bacterioplankton in coastal zones is of critical importance considering that these areas are highly productive and also anthropogenically impacted. Their richness and evenness as well as their potential activity are very important to assess ecosystem health and functioning. Here, we investigated bacterial distribution, community composition and potential metabolic activity in the GON which is an ideal test due to its heterogeneous environment characterized by a complex hydrodynamics and terrestrial inputs of varying quantities and quality. Our study demonstrates that bacterioplankton communities in this region are highly diverse and strongly regulated by a combination of different environmental factors leading to their heterogeneous distribution, with the rare taxa contributing to a major proportion of diversity and shifts in community composition and potentially holding a key role in ecosystem functioning. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2017 American Society for Microbiology.]
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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| Subjects: | Q Science > QH Natural history Q Science > QR Microbiology |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Science > Life Sciences (2010- ) | ||||||||
| SWORD Depositor: | Library Publications Router | ||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Plankton--Naples, Bay of (Italy), Marine bacteria--Naples, Bay of (Italy), Microbial metabolism, Recombinant DNA | ||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Applied and Environmental Microbiology | ||||||||
| Publisher: | American Society for Microbiology | ||||||||
| ISSN: | 0099-2240 | ||||||||
| Official Date: | September 2017 | ||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Date of first compliant deposit: | 14 September 2017 | ||||||||
| Volume: | 83 | ||||||||
| Number: | 17 | ||||||||
| Article Number: | e00494-17 | ||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1128/AEM.00494-17 | ||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
| Publisher Statement: | ** From PubMed via Jisc Publications Router. | ||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
| Funder: | Italy. Ministero dell'istruzione, dell'università e della ricerca (MIUR), Stazione zoologica di Napoli |
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