Metatranscriptomic response of deep ocean microbial populations to infusions of oil and/or synthetic chemical dispersant

Oil spills are a frequent perturbation to the marine environment that has rapid and significant impacts on the local microbiome. Previous studies have shown that exposure to synthetic dispersant alone did not enhance heterotrophic microbial activity or oxidation rates of specific hydrocarbon compone...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied and environmental microbiology 2024-08, Vol.90 (8), p.1
Main Authors: Peña-Montenegro, Tito D., Kleindienst, Sara, Allen, Andrew E., Eren, A. Murat, McCrow, John P., Arnold, Jonathan, Joye, Samantha B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abundance
Biological activity
Chemical activity
Ciliates
Dispersants
Environmental Microbiology
Exposure
Flagellates
Hydrocarbons
Marine chemistry
Marine environment
Metabolic pathways
Microbial activity
Microbiomes
Microorganisms
Nutrients
Oil spills
Organic carbon
Oxidation
Plasmids
Population studies
Prophages
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Summary:Oil spills are a frequent perturbation to the marine environment that has rapid and significant impacts on the local microbiome. Previous studies have shown that exposure to synthetic dispersant alone did not enhance heterotrophic microbial activity or oxidation rates of specific hydrocarbon components but increased the abundance of some taxa (e.g., Colwellia). In contrast, exposure to oil, but not dispersants, increased the abundance of other taxa (e.g., Marinobacter) and stimulated hydrocarbon oxidation rates. Here, we advance these findings by interpreting metatranscriptomic data from this experiment to explore how and why specific components of the microbial community responded to distinct organic carbon exposure regimes. Dispersant alone was selected for a unique community and for dominant organisms that reflected treatment- and time-dependent responses. Dispersant amendment also led to diverging functional profiles among the different treatments. Similarly, oil alone was selected for a community that was distinct from treatments amended with dispersants. The presence of oil and dispersants with added nutrients led to substantial differences in microbial responses, likely suggesting increased fitness driven by the presence of additional inorganic nutrients. The oil-only additions led to a marked increase in the expression of phages, prophages, transposable elements, and plasmids (PPTEPs), suggesting that aspects of microbial community response to oil are driven by the "mobilome," potentially through viral-associated regulation of metabolic pathways in ciliates and flagellates that would otherwise throttle the microbial community through grazing.
ISSN:0099-2240
1098-5336
1098-5336
DOI:10.1128/aem.01083-24