Key bacteria decomposing animal and plant detritus in deep sea revealed via long-term in situ incubation in different oceanic areas.

Abstract

Transport of organic matter (OM) occurs widely in the form of animal and plant detritus in global oceans, playing a crucial role in global carbon cycling. While wood- and whale-falls have been extensively studied, the in situ process of OM remineralization by microorganisms remains poorly understood particularly in pelagic regions on a global scale. Here, enrichment experiments with animal tissue or plant detritus were carried out in three deep seas for 4-12 months using the deep-sea in situ incubators. We then performed community composition analyses as well as metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analyses. The results revealed strikingly similar microbial assemblages responsible for decomposing animal and plant detritus. Genes encoding peptidases and glucoside hydrolases were highly abundant and actively transcribed in OM enrichments, which confirmed the roles of these enriched microbial assemblages in organic decomposition. Marinifilaceae, Desulfocapsaceae, Spirochaetaceae, and o-Peptostreptococcales were found to potentially contribute to nitrogen fixation. These core bacteria, acting as cosmopolitan anaerobes in decomposing fast-sinking particulate OM, may have been underestimated in terms of their role in deep-sea microbial-mediated biogeochemical cycles during conventional sampling and diversity survey.