Exploring diversity and ecology of nonarchaea in hydrothermal biotopes

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Date

2005

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

University of the Western Cape

Abstract

The Nanoarchaeota were proposed as the fourth archaeal sub-division in 2002, and the only fully characterized nanoarchaeon was found to exist in a symbiotic association with the crenarchaeote, Ignicoccus sp. This nanoarchaeote, named Nanoarchaeum equitans could not be detected with “universal” archaeal 16S PCR primers and could only be amplified using specifically designed primers. In order to identify and access a wide diversity of archaeal phylotypes a new set of “universal” archaeal primers A571F (5’-GCYTAA AGSRIC CGT AGC-3’) and UA1204R (5’-TTM GGG GCA TRCIKA CCT-3’) was designed, that could amplify the 16S rRNA genes of all four archaeal sub-divisions. Using these primers community DNA was amplified from Chinese and New Zealand hydrothermaystems. Upon sequencing of amplicons it was discovered that Chinese and. New Zealandsamples contained novel nanoarchaeal phylotypes. The preliminary nanoarchaeal phylotypes were used to design nanoarchaeal-specific primer N989R (5'-GGT TTC CGG TGT CAG TTC-3'), which was coupled with A571F and used in screening of nanoarchaeotes. The nanoarchaeal phylotypes identified with these primers were further screened by amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis (ARDRA), which was used to explore the diversity of these phylotypes. The novel nanoarchaeotes cluster into 9 cosely related clades which may represent separate species. Three of the New Zealand phylotypes form one separate clade which is closely related to the published nanoarchaeotes. The following nanoarchaeal sequences were submitted to the GenBank, TC9F (AY572420), TC11-5 (AY571283), TC11-B6 (AY727890), TC11-B7 (AY727887), TC11-C4 (AY727886), TC11-C6 (AY727889), TC11-C8 (AY727888), AND TC11-D4 (AY727891). Fluorescence in situhybridization was also used to simultaneously visualize, identify and localize nanoarchaeotes.

Description

Magister Scientiae - MSc

Keywords

Archaebacteria, Ecology, Thermophilic bacteria

Citation