Direct linking of microbial populations to specific biogeochemical processes by 13C-labelling of biomarkers

H. T. S. Boschker (), S. C. Nold, P. Wellsbury, D. Bos, W. de Graaf, R. Pel, R. J. Parkes and T. E. Cappenberg
Additional contact information
H. T. S. Boschker: Centre for Limnology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology
S. C. Nold: Centre for Limnology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology
P. Wellsbury: University of Bristol
D. Bos: Centre for Limnology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology
W. de Graaf: Centre for Limnology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology
R. Pel: Centre for Limnology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology
R. J. Parkes: University of Bristol
T. E. Cappenberg: Centre for Estuarine and Coastal Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology

Nature, 1998, vol. 392, issue 6678, 801-805

Abstract: Abstract Recent advances in the application of molecular genetic approaches have emphasized our potentially huge underestimate of microbial diversity in a range of natural environments1. These approaches, however, give no direct information about the biogeochemical processes in which microorganisms are active2. Here we describe an approach to directly link specific environmental microbial processes with the organisms involved, based on the stable-carbon-isotope labelling of individual lipid biomarkers. We demonstrate this approach in aquatic sediments and provide evidence for the identity of the bacteria involved in two important biogeochemical processes: sulphate reduction coupled to acetate oxidation in estuarine and brackish sediments3,4, and methane oxidation in a freshwater sediment5. Our results suggest that acetate added in a 13C-labelled form was predominantly consumed by sulphate-reducing bacteria similar to the Gram-positive Desulfotomaculum acetoxidans and not by a population of the more widely studied Gram-negative Desulfobacter spp. Furthermore, 13C-methane labelling experiments suggest that type I methanotrophic bacteria dominate methane oxidation at the freshwater site.

Date: 1998
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/33900 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:392:y:1998:i:6678:d:10.1038_33900

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/33900

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().