Microbial community composition and diversity in the Indian Ocean deep sea REY-rich muds

Studies about the composition and diversity of microbial community in the Rare Earth Elements-rich muds are limited. In this research, we conducted a characterization for the composition and diversity of bacterial and archaeal communities from rare earth elements-rich gravity core sediment at approximately 4800 meters deep in the Indian Ocean by Illumina high-throughput sequencing targeting 16S rRNA genes. The results showed that the most abundant bacteria were Proteobacteria, followed by Firmicutes and Actinobacteria. Amongst Proteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria are present in all sections of this sediment core accounted for a particularly large proportion of bacterial sequences. Candidatus Nitrosopumilus, with a higher relative abundance in our samples, belongs to Thaumarchaeota. This is the first report on the composition and diversity of rare earth elements-rich muds microbial communities in the Indian Ocean deep sea.

针对富稀土元素（Rare Earth Elements）沉积物中微生物群落组成与多样性的研究目前仍较为匮乏。本研究以印度洋约4800米水深采集的富稀土元素重力岩心沉积物为材料，采用靶向16S rRNA基因的Illumina高通量测序技术，对其中细菌与古菌群落的组成及多样性进行了表征分析。结果显示，丰度最高的细菌类群为变形菌门（Proteobacteria），其次为厚壁菌门（Firmicutes）与放线菌门（Actinobacteria）。在变形菌门中，γ-变形菌纲（Gammaproteobacteria）广泛分布于该沉积物岩心的所有层位，其序列占细菌总序列的比例极高。候选亚硝化蓬菌属（Candidatus Nitrosopumilus）在本研究样品中相对丰度较高，隶属于奇古菌门（Thaumarchaeota）。本研究为全球首次针对印度洋深海富稀土元素沉积物微生物群落组成与多样性的报道。