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. 2010 Feb;76(4):1285-9.
doi: 10.1128/AEM.02018-09. Epub 2009 Dec 28.

Abundance of ammonia-oxidizing archaea and bacteria along an estuarine salinity gradient in relation to potential nitrification rates

Anne E Bernhard  1 , Zachary C Landry, Alison Blevins, José R de la Torre, Anne E Giblin, David A Stahl
Affiliations

Abundance of ammonia-oxidizing archaea and bacteria along an estuarine salinity gradient in relation to potential nitrification rates

Anne E Bernhard et al. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2010 Feb.

Abstract

Abundance of ammonia-oxidizing Archaea (AOA) was found to be always greater than that of ammonia-oxidizing Bacteria along an estuarine salinity gradient, and AOA abundance was highest at intermediate salinity. However, AOA abundance did not correlate with potential nitrification rates. This lack of correlation may be due to methodological limitations or alternative energy sources.

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Figures

FIG. 1.
FIG. 1.
Phylogenetic relationships of representative deduced archaeal amoA protein sequences recovered from Plum Island Sound sediments representing low (P22 prefix), mid (P14 prefix), and high (R8C prefix) in situ salinity. The tree was inferred from 181 amino acid residues. Bootstrap values (≥50) based on 100 replicates for neighbor-joining (above the node) and parsimony (below the node) analyses are indicated. Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of similar sequences recovered from the same site. Water column/sediment and soil/sediment clusters are as designated by Francis et al. (13).
FIG. 2.
FIG. 2.
Average (±1 standard deviation) gene copy number of archaeal ammonia monooxygenase genes (amoA) in Plum Island Sound sediments (panel A) and the ratio of AOA to β-AOB abundance (panel B) in April and August-September averaged from duplicate (2001) or triplicate (2002 and 2003) cores from each site over 3 years. The range of ratios for each site is indicated in the box above the columns in panel B. Asterisks indicate a statistically significant difference between April and August-September values (determined by Student's t test using α = 0.05). Values of amoA abundance at R8C in April are from 2001 only. All other data are the averages of values from 3 years.
FIG. 3.
FIG. 3.
Abundance of amoA genes from ammonia-oxidizing Archaea (AOA) and ammonia-oxidizing Betaproteobacteria (AOB) in relation to in situ salinity (psu). Symbols represent individual P22 (low-salinity), P14 (mid-salinity), and R8C (high-salinity) samples collected on different dates.
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References

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