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PMID: 16894176 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Archaeal nitrification in the ocean.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America ·Vol. 103 ·No. 33 ·2006-08-15 ·Pages 12317-22

Wuchter C, Abbas B, Coolen MJ, Herfort L, van Bleijswijk J, Timmers P, Strous M, Teira E, Herndl GJ, Middelburg JJ, Schouten S, Sinninghe Damsté JS

Abstract

Marine Crenarchaeota are the most abundant single group of prokaryotes in the ocean, but their physiology and role in marine biogeochemical cycles are unknown. Recently, a member of this clade was isolated from a sea aquarium and shown to be capable of nitrification, tentatively suggesting that Crenarchaeota may play a role in the oceanic nitrogen cycle. We enriched a crenarchaeote from North Sea water and showed that its abundance, and not that of bacteria, correlates with ammonium oxidation to nitrite. A time series study in the North Sea revealed that the abundance of the gene encoding for the archaeal ammonia monooxygenase alfa subunit (amoA) is correlated with a decline in ammonium concentrations and with the abundance of Crenarchaeota. Remarkably, the archaeal amoA abundance was 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than those of bacterial nitrifiers, which are commonly thought to mediate the oxidation of ammonium to nitrite in marine environments. Analysis of Atlantic waters of the upper 1,000 m, where most of the ammonium regeneration and oxidation takes place, showed that crenarchaeotal amoA copy numbers are also 1-3 orders of magnitude higher than those of bacterial amoA. Our data thus suggest a major role for Archaea in oceanic nitrification.

MeSH Terms

Archaeal Proteins/classification,genetics,metabolism Crenarchaeota/classification,genetics,metabolism Molecular Sequence Data Nitrogen/chemistry,metabolism North Sea Oxidation-Reduction Phylogeny Quaternary Ammonium Compounds/chemistry,metabolism Seawater/chemistry

Chemicals

Archaeal Proteins Quaternary Ammonium Compounds Nitrogen

Authors & Affiliations

12 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID

Wuchter Cornelia

Department of Marine Biogeochemistry and Toxicology, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), P.O. Box 59, 1790 AB, Den Burg, The Netherlands.

Abbas Ben

Coolen Marco J L

Herfort Lydie

van Bleijswijk Judith

Timmers Peer

Strous Marc

Teira Eva

Herndl Gerhard J

Middelburg Jack J

Schouten Stefan

Sinninghe Damsté Jaap S

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Article Info

Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Abbr.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

ISSN

0027-8424

DOI

10.1073/pnas.0600756103

Published

2006-08-15

Epub

2006-00-07

Pages

12317-22

Language

English

Region

United States

NLM ID

7505876

PMCID

PMC1533803

Subset

Databases

GENBANK

DQ659389, DQ659390, DQ659391, DQ659392, DQ659393, DQ659394, DQ659395, DQ659396, DQ659397, DQ659398, DQ659399, DQ659400, DQ659401, DQ659402, DQ659403, DQ659404, DQ659405, DQ659406, DQ659407, DQ659408, DQ659409, DQ659410, DQ784527, DQ784528, DQ784529, DQ784530, DQ784531, DQ784532, DQ784533, DQ784534, DQ784535, DQ784536, DQ784537, DQ784538

Corrections

ErratumIn

External Links

PubMed source DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0600756103 PMC Full Text View journal details

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