Atlantis Massif subsurface, environmental amplicon tag sequencing. Atlantis Massif serpentinizing crust subsurface metagenome

Much of the deep subsurface is characterized by low abundance of microorganisms, making genomic microbiological investigations inherently difficult. Cell extraction techniques in combination with FACS may increase access to genomic information in difficult to obtain, low biomass samples. The samples represent a range of depth, holes and lithologies in a serpentinizing system at a single site, and will give insight into whether there is an endemic crustal community at Atlantis Massif, whether different lithologies and progressive exposure to the sea floor select for specific taxa, or whether the crustal microbiota are composed of ubiquitous generalists as suggested by previous work on gabbroic layer Atlantis Massif crust (Mason, O.U., et al., First investigation of the microbiology of the deepest layer of ocean crust. PLoS ONE, 2010. 5(11): p. e15399). These results will additionally aid in targeting taxa of interest for downstream single cell genomic analyses (for example taxa associated with methanotrophy). Lead PI, Jackie Goordial.