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Appl. Environ. Microbiol., Jul 1997, 2876-2883, Vol 63, No. 7
HJM Harmsen, D Prieur and C Jeanthon
The microbial community structure of hydrothermal vent chimneys was
evaluated by the combined use of enrichment cultures and whole-cell
hybridizations with fluorescently labeled 16S rRNA-based oligonucleotide
probes. Chimneys were collected during the Microsmoke cruise on the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge and were subsampled on board and stored under reduced
conditions or fixed. For estimation of culturable thermophiles, selective
media were inoculated by dilution series of the samples and incubated at
65, 80, and 95(deg)C. To analyze the microbial diversity of the samples,
cells were extracted from the fixed chimney structure samples and
hybridized with domain- and kingdom-specific probes. Quantification of the
extracted cells was assessed by whole-cell hybridization on membrane
filters. By both methods, the largest amounts of microorganisms were found
in the upper and outer parts of the chimneys, although even the inner parts
contained culturable and detectable amounts of cells. Different morphotypes
of thermophilic and hyperthermophilic microorganisms were enriched and
detected in samples. Our data clearly indicate that the morphological
diversity observed by using whole-cell hybridization is much larger than
that assessed by use of culture-based enrichments. This new approach,
including culture-independent and -dependent methods to study hydrothermal
vent chimneys, showed an uneven distribution of a diverse microbial
community. Application of lower-level specific probes for known families
and genera within each domain by our approach will be useful to reveal the
real extent and nature of the chimney microbial diversity and to support
cultivation attempts.
Copyright © 1997, American Society for Microbiology
Distribution of Microorganisms in Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vent Chimneys Investigated by Whole-Cell Hybridization and Enrichment Culture of Thermophilic Subpopulations
Station Biologique, UPR9042, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, 29680 Roscoff, and Universite de Bretagne Occidentale, UFR des Sciences et Techniques, 29285 Brest Cedex, France
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