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. 2025 Jan 17:15:1501893.
doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1501893. eCollection 2024.

Prokaryotic communities associated with marine hydrothermal systems of the Gulf of California

Ruth Noemí Aguila-Ramírez  1 , Bárbara González-Acosta  1 , Karla María Gutiérrez-Almada  1 , José Manuel Borges-Souza  1 , Rocío Guadalupe Cervantes-Gámez  2 , Eduardo Quiróz-Guzmán  3
Affiliations

Prokaryotic communities associated with marine hydrothermal systems of the Gulf of California

Ruth Noemí Aguila-Ramírez et al. Front Microbiol. .

Abstract

Introduction: Marine hydrothermal systems (MHS) are considered extreme environments due to their unique physicochemical conditions, which are challenging for most organisms. This study investigates the microbial communities in three MHS sites in Baja California Sur, Mexico.

Methods: Sediment samples were collected in two seasons of the year: rainy and dry season. Bacterial DNA was extracted, the V3-V4 regions of the 16S rRNA gene were amplified.

Results and discussion: The analysis of microbial community structure and composition revealed that species richness and diversity were higher at control sites (not influenced by hydrothermal conditions). Samples from the MHS showed temporal variation in richness, as measured by the Chao1 index. Alphaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria were the dominant classes. No significant differences in community structure were found between the seasons or between the control and MHS sites. However, the analysis did reveal differences in community structure among the three hydrothermal locations: Burro, Santispac, and Agua Caliente. The presence of Gammaproteobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, Deltaproteobacteria, and Betaproteobacteria highlights their key roles in primary production within shallow hydrothermal systems, these microbial communities demonstrate their capacity to colonize diverse substrates. This study enhances the microbiological understanding of hydrothermal environments in Baja California Sur, and molecular analysis of unculturable microbes could provide further insights into their physiology and ecological roles in shallow hydrothermal systems.

Keywords: bacterial diversity; diversity; prokaryotic community; sediment; shallow-water hydrothermal vent.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Location of the study areas corresponding to the shallow hydrothermal systems of Baja California Sur.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Relative abundance of dominant bacteria linage (phyla; and class for proteobacteria) found in BD, Burro dry season; BR, Burro rainy season; CBD, Burro dry season control; CBR, Burro rainy season control; MD, Santispac dry season; MR, Santispac rainy season; CMR, Santispac dry season control; CMD, Santispac rainy season control; VD, Agua Caliente, Ventana dry season; VR, Agua Caliente, Ventana rainy season; CVD, Ventana dry season control; CVR, Ventana rainy season control.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Relative abundance of dominant bacterial families found in BD, Burro dry season; BR, Burro rainy season; CBD, Burro dry season control; CBR, Burro rainy season control; MD, Santispac dry season; MR, Santispac rainy season; CMR, Santispac dry season control; CMD, Santispac rainy season control; VD, Agua Caliente, Ventana dry season; VR, Agua Caliente, Ventana rainy season; CVD, Ventana dry season control; CVR, Ventana rainy season control.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Bacterial community structures of SMHS station samples from BD, Burro dry season; BR, Burro rainy season; CBD, Burro dry season control; CBR, Burro rainy season control; MD, Santispac dry season; MR, Santispac rainy season; CMR, Santispac dry season control; CMD, Santispac rainy season control; VD, Agua Caliente, Ventana dry season; VR, Agua Caliente, Ventana rainy season; CVD, Ventana dry season control; CVR, Ventana rainy season control. PCoA plots are based on the Yue & Clayton measure of dissimilarity (Yue and Clayton, 2005). Ellipses represent the 95% confidence intervals. The first and second axes represent 14.92 and 12.02% of the variation, respectively.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Relative abundance of major bacterial families found in sediment samples, as well as a heatmap of the most abundant species (at the ASV level), which were compared with their abundances in each group. The color intensity (log10 scale) in each panel shows the relative abundance of each species.
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