Metagenome of environmental sample from a cold seep

The microorganisms inhabiting cold seeps transform the chemical energy in methane to products that sustain rich benthic communities around the gas leaks . The use of next-generation sequencing methods has tremendously improved the insights into seep microbiomes and will advance microbial ecology from the diversity microbial distribution pattern to the adaptive survival strategy in deep-sea environments. We collected a set of samples from a cold seep in South China Sea and obtained a set of draft genomes of environmental Bacteria and Archaea.

栖息于冷泉（cold seep）生境的微生物可将甲烷中的化学能转化为营养底物，为气体泄漏区域周边繁盛的底栖生物群落（benthic community）提供生存支撑。下一代测序（next-generation sequencing）技术的应用极大地加深了学界对冷泉微生物组的认知，并将推动微生物生态学研究从解析微生物分布模式与多样性特征，拓展至探索深海环境中的适应性生存策略。本研究采集了南海（South China Sea）一处冷泉的多份样品，并从中获得了环境细菌（Bacteria）与古菌（Archaea）的若干草图基因组（draft genome）。