Cold adaptation and functionality of the Antarctic Coastal Benthic Zones

Antarctic sediments and sea-ice are important regulators in global biogeochemical and atmospheric cycles. These ecosystems contain a diverse range of bacteria whose biogeochemical roles remains largely unknown and which inhabit what are continually low temperature habitats. An integrated molecular and chemical approach will be used to investigate the coupling of microbial biogeochemical processes with community structure and cold adaptation within coastal Antarctic marine sediments and within sea-ice. Overall the project expects to make an important contribution to our understanding of biological processes within low temperature habitats.DATA SET ORGANISATION:The dataset is organised on the basis of publication and is organised on the basis of the following sections:1. SEDIMENT SAMPLES and ISOLATESSamples collected are described in terms of location, type and where data were obtained chemical features. The designation, source, media used for cultivation and isolation and availability of sediment and other related isolates are provided. Samples included are from the following locations: Clear Lake, Pendant Lake, Scale Lake, Ace Lake, Burton Lake, Ekho Lake, Organic Lake, Deep lake and Taynaya Bay (Burke Basin), Vestfold Hills region; and the Mertz Glacier Polynya region.2. BIOMASS and ENZYME ACTIVITY DATABiomass, numbers and extracellular enzyme activity data are provided for Bacteria and Archaea populations from Mertz Glacier Polynya shelf sediments.3. FATTY ACID and TETRAETHER LIPID DATAPhospholipid and tetraether lipid data are provided for Mertz Glacier Polynya shelf sediments. Whole cell fatty acid data are provided for various bacterial isolates described officially as new genera or species.4. RNA HYBRIDISATION DATARNA hybridisation data for Mertz Glacier Polynya sediment samples is provided, including data for oligonucleotide probes specifc for total Bacteria, Archaea, the Desulfosarcina group (class Deltaproteobacteria, sulfate reducing bacterial clade), phylum Planctomycetes, phylum Bacteroidetes (Cytophaga-Flavobacterium-Bacteroides), class Gammaproteobacteria, sulfur-oxidizing and related bacteria (a subset of class Gammaproteobacteria) and Eukaryota.5. PHYLOGENETIC DATA16S rRNA gene sequence data are indicated including aligned datasets for three clone libraries derived from the Mertz Glacier Polynya including GenBank accession numbers. Sequence accession numbers are provided for Vestfold Hills lake sediment samples. In addition GenBank numbers are provided for denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis band sequence data from Mertz Glacier Polynya shelf sediment. Other forms of this DGGE data (banding profile analysis) are available in reference Bowman et al. 2003 (AAD ref 10971).

南极沉积物与海冰是全球生物地球化学循环及大气循环的关键调控因子。此类生态系统栖息着多样的细菌类群，其生物地球化学功能在很大程度上仍未被探明，且它们所生存的环境为持续低温生境。本研究将采用整合分子与化学研究手段，探究南极沿海海洋沉积物与海冰中，微生物生物地球化学过程与群落结构、低温适应性之间的耦合关系。本项目预期将为深化对低温生境中生物过程的认知作出重要贡献。

数据集组织方式：
本数据集以出版物为核心依据进行整理，具体分为以下章节：
1. 沉积物样本与分离菌株
本次采集的样本将从采集位置、样本类型以及数据来源的化学特征维度进行描述。同时将提供沉积物及相关分离菌株的编号、来源、培养与分离所用培养基，以及其可获取性信息。本研究涵盖的样本采集自以下区域：沃斯托克丘陵（Vestfold Hills）区域的克利尔湖（Clear Lake）、彭南特湖（Pendant Lake）、斯凯尔湖（Scale Lake）、艾斯湖（Ace Lake）、伯顿湖（Burton Lake）、埃科湖（Ekho Lake）、有机湖（Organic Lake）、深湖（Deep Lake）以及泰纳亚湾（Taynaya Bay，伯克盆地（Burke Basin））；以及默茨冰川冰间湖（Mertz Glacier Polynya）区域。
2. 生物量与酶活性数据
本章节将提供默茨冰川冰间湖陆架沉积物中细菌与古菌（Archaea）种群的生物量、细胞数量及胞外酶活性数据。
3. 脂肪酸与四醚脂数据
本章节将提供默茨冰川冰间湖陆架沉积物的磷脂与四醚脂检测数据。同时将收录正式定名的新属或新种各类细菌分离菌株的全细胞脂肪酸数据。
4. RNA杂交数据
本章节将提供默茨冰川冰间湖沉积物样本的RNA杂交检测数据，涵盖针对以下类群的特异性寡核苷酸探针结果：总细菌、古菌、脱硫八叠球菌属类群（δ-变形菌纲（Deltaproteobacteria）硫酸盐还原细菌演化支）、浮霉菌门（Planctomycetes）、拟杆菌门（Bacteroidetes，即噬纤维菌-黄杆菌-拟杆菌类群）、γ-变形菌纲（Gammaproteobacteria）、硫氧化及相关细菌（γ-变形菌纲的一个亚类）以及真核生物域（Eukaryota）。
5. 系统发育数据
本章节将提供16S核糖体RNA基因（16S rRNA gene）序列数据，包括来自默茨冰川冰间湖的3个克隆文库的比对数据集，以及对应的GenBank登录号。同时将提供沃斯托克丘陵区域湖泊沉积物样本的序列登录号。此外，还将提供默茨冰川冰间湖陆架沉积物的变性梯度凝胶电泳（Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis, DGGE）条带序列数据的GenBank编号。该DGGE数据的其他衍生形式（如条带图谱分析）可参考Bowman等人2003年发表的文献（澳大利亚南极局（Australian Antarctic Division, AAD）参考文献编号10971）。