Diversity and spatial distribution of hydrazine oxidoreductase (hzo) gene in the oxygen minimum zone off Costa Rica

Liangliang Kong, Hongmei Jing, Takafumi Kataoka, Carolyn Buchwald, Hongbin Liu

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Articlepeer-review

32 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Anaerobic ammonia oxidation (anammox) as an important nitrogen loss pathway has been reported in marine oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) but the community composition and spatial distribution of anammox bacteria in the eastern tropical North Pacific (ETNP) OMZ are poorly determined. In this study, anammox bacterial communities in the OMZ off Costa Rica (CRD-OMZ) were analyzed based on both hydrazine oxidoreductase (hzo) genes and their transcripts assigned to cluster 1 and 2. The anammox communities revealed by hzo genes and proteins in CRD-OMZ showed a low diversity. Gene quantification results showed that hzo gene abundances peaked in the upper OMZs, associated with the peaks of nitrite concentration. Nitrite and oxygen concentrations may therefore colimit the distribution of anammox bacteria in this area. Furthermore, transcriptional activity of anammox bacteria was confirmed by obtaining abundant hzo mRNA transcripts through qRT-PCR. A novel hzo cluster 2x clade was identified by the phylogenetic analysis and these novel sequences were abundant and widely distributed in this environment.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere78275
JournalPLoS ONE
Volume8
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 31 Oct 2013

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2013 Kong et al.

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