HÃ¥kon Mosby Mud Volcano metagenome

The HÃ¥kon Mosby Mud Volcano is an active methane-driven cold seep located in the Barents Sea. The highly diverse microbial community in the subseafloor sediments of the volcano derives its energy from methane and hydrocarbones found in the emitted volcano fluid. Here, we present the metagenomic analysis of the prokaryotic community found in a HÃ¥kon Mosby Mud Volcano sediment sample. The metagenome was created using 454 pyrosequencing. Analysis of the metagenome indicated a high microbial diversity. Bacteria and Archaea made up 94.6 and 5.4% of the microbial reads, with Proteobacteria and Euryarchaeota being the dominant phyla. The metabolic potential was studied using both the MG-RAST annotation and the KEGG Automatic Annotation Server. Binning of metagenomic reads into taxa such as Proteobacteria, Archaea and Bacteroidetes, allowed annotation of reads and linking of metabolic routes to specific microbial groups. Thus, phylum-specific genes were identified belonging to specific metabolic routes like CO2 fixation, nitrogen cycling, sulfur cycling and methanogenesis or its reversal (anaerobic oxidation of methane). Our approach demonstrates how metagenomic analysis can be used to unravel the metabolic potential of different phyla within the same sample. For instance our analyses showed that many important enzymes in methanogenesis were found only among archaeal sequences in the HÃ¥kon Mosby Mud Volcano metagenome. The method provides a powerful approach to a better understanding of the ecology and relationships within complex microbial communities.