Environmental Genomics Reveals a Single-Species Ecosystem Deep Within Earth

2008/10/10 by Dylan Chivian, Eoin Brodie, Eric J. Alm +17 · 4 citations
Environmental Science · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology #Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies #Bacteriophages and microbial interactions

paper · doi:10.1126/science.1155495

openalex publication_date 2008/10/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

DNA from low-biodiversity fracture water collected at 2.8-kilometer depth in a South African gold mine was sequenced and assembled into a single, complete genome. This bacterium, Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator, composes >99.9% of the microorganisms inhabiting the fluid phase of this particular fracture. Its genome indicates a motile, sporulating, sulfate-reducing, chemoautotrophic thermophile that can fix its own nitrogen and carbon by using machinery shared with archaea. Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator is capable of an independent life-style well suited to long-term isolation from the photosphere deep within Earth's crust and offers an example of a natural ecosystem that appears to have its biological component entirely encoded within a single genome.

Citations

• The Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling Expedition: Northwest Atlantic through Eastern Tropical Pacific
• Environmental Genome Shotgun Sequencing of the Sargasso Sea
• CRISPR Provides Acquired Resistance Against Viruses in Prokaryotes

Cited by

• The deep, hot biosphere: Twenty-five years of retrospection
• Serpentinization, Carbon, and Deep Life
• Evolutionary history of carbon monoxide dehydrogenase/acetyl-CoA synthase, one of the oldest enzymatic complexes
• List of organisms named after works of fiction [wikipedia]

Related

• Genomic inference of the metabolism of cosmopolitan subsurface Archaea, Hadesarchaea
• A cellular entity retaining only its replicative core: Hidden archaeal lineage with an ultra-reduced genome
• MOLECULAR APPROACHES TO MARINE MICROBIAL ECOLOGY AND THE MARINE NITROGEN CYCLE
• Recent Microbial Evolutionary Insights From Metagenomics
• The deep, hot biosphere: Twenty-five years of retrospection