Abstract
Many microbial ecology studies use multivariate analyses to relate microbial abundances to independently measured physicochemical variables. However, genes and proteins are themselves chemical entities; in combination with genome databases, differences in microbial abundances therefore quantitatively encode for chemical variability. We combined community profiles from published 16S rRNA gene sequencing datasets with predicted microbial proteomes from the NCBI Reference Sequence (RefSeq) database to generate a two-dimensional chemical representation of microbial communities. This analysis demonstrates that environmental redox gradients within and between hydrothermal systems and stratified lakes and marine environments are reflected in predictable changes in the carbon oxidation state of inferred community proteomes. These findings have important implications for understanding the microbial communities in produced well fluids and streams affected by hydraulically fractured wells. Although redox measurements for these environments generally are not available, this analysis suggests that redox chemistry is likely to be a significant driver of the microbial ecology of these systems.
Teaser A chemical representation of predicted microbial proteomes reveals new links between community structure and environmental chemistry.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.