Title A Novel Archaeal Group in the Phylum Crenarchaeota Found Unexpectedly in an Eukaryotic Survey in the Cariaco Basin
Author Sun-Ok Jeon1, Tae-Seok Ahn1, and Sun-Hee Hong2*
Address 1Department of Environmental Science, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 200-701, Republic of Korea, 2Department of Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115, USA
Bibliography Journal of Microbiology, 46(1),34-39, 2008,
DOI
Key Words Archaeal diversity, Cariaco Basin, novel archaeal phylotypes
Abstract Archaea have been found in many more diverse habitats than previously believed due in part to modern molecular approaches to discovering microbial diversity. We report here an unexpected expansion of the habitat diversity of the Archaea in the Cariaco Basin we found using a primer set designed for 18S eukaryotic rDNA sequence analysis. The results presented here expand the originally identified 9 archaeal clones reported in this environment using bacterial/archaeal primers to 152 archaeal clones: 67 (18 OTU) of these clones were found at a depth of 900 m of station A while 71 (9 OTU) of them were at a depth of between 300~335 m of station B&C depending upon which location the samples were taken. We used three phylogenetic analysis methods and detected 20 phylotypes belonging to a single previously unreported group distantly related to the Crenarchaeota. Also, we determined that the original nine sequences did not fall into any of the known phyla of the Archaea suggesting that they may represent a novel group within the Kingdom Archaea. Thus, from these two studies, we suggest that Archaea in the Cariaco Basin could be unique; however, further studies using archaeal-specific primers and the design of new primers as well as the systematic use of several different primer combinations may improve the chances of understanding the archeal diversity in the Cariaco Basin.