Applied and Environmental Microbiology, January 2001, p. 387-395, Vol. 67, No. 1
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.1.387-395.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Molecular Ecology Group, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, 28359 Bremen, Germany
Received 19 July 2000/Accepted 11 October 2000
Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and rRNA slot blot
hybridization with 16S rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide probes were used
to investigate the phylogenetic composition of a marine Arctic sediment
(Svalbard). FISH resulted in the detection of a large fraction of
microbes living in the top 5 cm of the sediment. Up to 65.4% ± 7.5%
of total DAPI (4',6'-diamidino-2-phenylindole) cell counts hybridized
to the bacterial probe EUB338, and up to 4.9% ± 1.5% hybridized to
the archaeal probe ARCH915. Besides
-proteobacterial
sulfate-reducing bacteria (up to 16% 52) members of
the Cytophaga-Flavobacterium cluster were the most abundant group detected in this sediment, accounting for up to 12.8% of total
DAPI cell counts and up to 6.1% of prokaryotic rRNA. Furthermore, members of the order Planctomycetales accounted for up to
3.9% of total cell counts. In accordance with previous studies, these findings support the hypothesis that these bacterial groups are not
simply settling with organic matter from the pelagic zone but are
indigenous to the anoxic zones of marine sediments. Members of the
-proteobacteria also constituted a significant fraction in this
sediment (6.1% ± 2.5% of total cell counts, 14.4% ± 3.6% of
prokaryotic rRNA). A new probe (GAM660) specific for sequences affiliated with free-living or endosymbiotic sulfur-oxidizing bacteria
was developed. A significant number of cells was detected by this probe
(2.1% ± 0.7% of total DAPI cell counts, 13.2% ± 4.6% of
prokaryotic rRNA), showing no clear zonation along the vertical
profile. Gram-positive bacteria and the
-proteobacteria were near
the detection limit in all sediments.
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