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Desulfotomaculum and Methanobacterium spp. Dominate a 4- to 5-Kilometer-Deep Fault

Duane P. Moser,^1* Thomas M. Gihring,^1, Fred J. Brockman,¹ James K. Fredrickson,¹ David L. Balkwill,² Michael E. Dollhopf,^2, Barbara Sherwood Lollar,³ Lisa M. Pratt,⁴ Erik Boice,⁴ Gordon Southam,⁵ Greg Wanger,⁵ Brett J. Baker,⁶ Susan M. Pfiffner,⁷ Li-Hung Lin,^8, and T. C. Onstott⁸

Environmental Microbiology Group, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352,¹ Department of Biomedical Sciences Biology, The Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306,² Department of Geosciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3B1, Canada,³ Department of Geological Sciences, Biogeochemical Laboratories, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405,⁴ Department of Earth Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5B7, Canada,⁵ Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720,⁶ Center of Biomarker Analysis, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37932,⁷ Department of Geological and Geophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544⁸

Received 6 April 2005/ Accepted 15 August 2005

Alkaline, sulfidic, 54 to 60°C, 4 to 53 million-year-old meteoric water emanating from a borehole intersecting quartzite-hosted fractures >3.3 km beneath the surface supported a microbial community dominated by a bacterial species affiliated with Desulfotomaculum spp. and an archaeal species related to Methanobacterium spp. The geochemical homogeneity over the 650-m length of the borehole, the lack of dividing cells, and the absence of these microorganisms in mine service water support an indigenous origin for the microbial community. The coexistence of these two microorganisms is consistent with a limiting flux of inorganic carbon and SO₄^2– in the presence of high pH, high concentrations of H₂ and CH₄, and minimal free energy for autotrophic methanogenesis. Sulfide isotopic compositions were highly enriched, consistent with microbial SO₄^2– reduction under hydrologic isolation. An analogous microbial couple and similar abiogenic gas chemistry have been reported recently for hydrothermal carbonate vents of the Lost City near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (D. S. Kelly et al., Science 307:1428-1434, 2005), suggesting that these features may be common to deep subsurface habitats (continental and marine) bearing this geochemical signature. The geochemical setting and microbial communities described here are notably different from microbial ecosystems reported for shallower continental subsurface environments.

Present address: Florida State University, Department of Oceanography, Tallahassee, FL 32306.

Present address: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Marquette University, P.O. Box 1881, Milwaukee, WI 53201.

Present address: Institute of Zoology, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 106, Taiwan.

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