RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 New Asgard archaea capable of anaerobic hydrocarbon cycling
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 527697
DO 10.1101/527697
A1 Kiley W. Seitz
A1 Nina Dombrowski
A1 Laura Eme
A1 Anja Spang
A1 Jonathan Lombard
A1 Jessica R. Sieber
A1 Andreas P. Teske
A1 Thijs J.G. Ettema
A1 Brett J. Baker
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/01/23/527697.abstract
AB Large reservoirs of natural gas in the oceanic subsurface sustain a complex biosphere of anaerobic microbes, including recently characterized archaeal lineages that extend the potential to mediate hydrocarbon oxidation (methane and butane) beyond the Methanomicrobia. Here we describe a new archaeal phylum, Helarchaeota, belonging to the Asgard superphylum with the potential for hydrocarbon oxidation. We reconstructed Helarchaeota genomes from hydrothermal deep-sea sediment metagenomes in hydrocarbon-rich Guaymas Basin, and show that these encode novel methyl-CoM reductase-like enzymes that are similar to those found in butane-oxidizing archaea. Based on these results as well as the presence of several alkyl-CoA oxidation and Wood-Ljungdahl pathway genes in the Helarchaeota genomes, we suggest that members of the Helarchaeota have the potential to activate and subsequently anaerobically oxidize short-chain hydrocarbons. These findings link a new phylum of Asgard archaea to the microbial utilization of hydrothermally generated hydrocarbons, and extend this genomic blueprint further through the archaeal domain.