Microbial life on a sand grain: from bulk sediment to single sand grains

Globally, marine surface sediments constitute a habitat for estimated 1.7 × 10^26 prokaryotes. For benthic microbial community analysis, usually several grams of sediment are processed. In this study, we made the step from bulk sediments to single sand grains to address the microbial community directly in its micro-habitat: the individual bacterial diversity on 17 sand grains was analyzed by 16S rRNA gene tag sequencing.

据估算，全球海洋表层沉积物栖息着约1.7×10^26个原核生物（prokaryote）。在底栖微生物群落（benthic microbial community）分析中，常规实验流程通常需处理数克沉积物样品。本研究将研究对象从整体沉积物（bulk sediments）拓展至单沙粒，以直接探究其微生境中的微生物群落：通过16S rRNA基因标签测序（16S rRNA gene tag sequencing）技术，本研究对17颗沙粒上的细菌多样性进行了分析。