Community structure and species associations in sediment-free methanotrophic enrichment cultures from a marine methane seep

Biological anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) coupled to sulfate reduction represents a large methane sink in global ocean sediments. Methane consumption is carried out by syntrophic archaeal-bacterial consortia and fuels an unique ecosystem, yet these slow growing interactions in the syntrophic consortia and between the associated community members remain poorly understood. We established in vitro enrichments performing AOM with sulfate by selecting and cultivating microbes of interest based on size, density and metabolism. By analysing community composition of the enrichments and single aggregates, we shed light on the microbial assemblage that thrive on methane and could be physically associated together. These in vitro enrichments will serve as the model system to study microbial interactions in marine methane seeps.