Detection of Anammox Activity and Diversity of Anammox Bacteria- Related 16S Rrna Genes in Coastal Marine Sediment in Japan
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Microbes Environ. Vol. 22, No. 3, 232–242, 2007 http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/jsme2/ Detection of Anammox Activity and Diversity of Anammox Bacteria- Related 16S rRNA Genes in Coastal Marine Sediment in Japan TERUKI AMANO1, IKUO YOSHINAGA1*, KENTARO OKADA1, TAKAO YAMAGISHI2, SHINGO UEDA3, AKIRA OBUCHI2, YOSHIHIKO SAKO1, and YUICHI SUWA2 1 Laboratory of Marine Microbiology, Division of Applied Biosciences, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Oiwake-cho, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606–8502, Japan 2 Research Institute for Environmental Management Technology, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, 16–1, Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305–8569, Japan 3 College of Bioresource Sciences, Nihon University, 1866, Kameino, Fujisawa, Kanagawa 252–8510, Japan (Received April 16, 2007—Accepted May 10, 2007) A first assessment of anammox activity, which is a unique N2 emission process, was conducted in samples of coastal marine sediment from Japan with a 15N tracer. The occurrence and diversity of bacteria possibly responsi- ble for the anammox process were also evaluated by selective PCR-amplification of the 16S rRNA gene for known anammox bacteria. Anammox activity, detected by measuring 14N15N gas production, was only found in samples collected at the intertidal sand bank located at the Yodo River estuary. In the Yodo River samples, 16S rRNA gene fragments affiliated with the known anammox bacterial lineage were also recovered, and the two major phylotypes were both “Candidatus Scalindua wagneri” relatives with 95% and 98% sequence similarity. Even from the other samples in which no recognizable anammox activity was detected, 16S rRNA gene frag- ments related to known anammox bacteria, but not to “Ca. S. wagneri”, were detected. This is the first report of anammox-mediated N2 emission in coastal marine environments in Japan. Notably, the PCR-based analysis allowed us to discover unexpected phylogenetic diversity of anammox bacteria-related 16S rRNA gene sequences. The selective PCR primer set developed in this study could be a powerful tool to unveil the ecology of anammox bacteria in natural environments. Key words: anammox, 16S rRNA gene, nitrogen cycle, marine sediment, 15N tracer Coastal and enclosed sea areas, into which excess fication. A specific group of bacteria belonging to the order amounts of terrestrial nitrogen flow, can easily become Planctomycetales in the phylum Planctomycetes is consid- eutrophic and suffer from harmful algal blooms. For the ered to mediate the anammox reaction under anoxic sustainable management of such marine environments, a conditions28). Since anammox has a different mechanism better understanding of the nitrogen cycle, especially the from denitrification in N2 formation, the presence of anam- emission of N2 gas as a mechanism of removing nitrogen mox will cause one to overestimate true N2 production when 15 from the fixed nitrogen pool, is essential. N2 gas emission in the nitrogen isotope ( N) pairing technique (IPT), which marine environments may also be a key regulator of ecosys- has been widely used for measuring N2 production by deni- tem function and global biogeochemistry2). trification in natural samples, is employed19). Therefore, Recently, it was demonstrated that anaerobic ammonium investigating the distribution of anammox activity and oxidation (anammox) was also involved in the emission of microorganisms responsible in marine environments is 12,30) N2 gas from marine environments in addition to denitri- required for a precise estimation of N2 gas emission. Most of the information on anammox has been obtained * Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected]. from enriched cultures with high concentrations of inor- jp; Tel.: +81–75–753–6219; Fax: +81–75–753–6226. ganic nitrogen substrates. In the anammox reaction, the two Anammox in Coastal Marine Sediment 233 + − nitrogen atoms in N2 are derived from NH4 and NO2 Sea, Osaka Bay, Ise Bay and the intertidal sand bank at the 36) respectively , while denitrification forms N2 gas from two Yodo River estuary in 2005 and 2006, using a grab sampler − − 37) molecules of NO2 (NO3 ) through a stepwise reduction. (Rigo Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) (for samples S1, S2, S3, IB1, This biochemical difference allows us to distinguish and IB2), a KK core sampler (Hashimoto Kagaku Co. Ltd., 15 between N2 production by the two processes by using N as Kyoto, Japan) (for samples OB1 and OB2), or a plastic core a tracer. Regarding microorganisms responsible for the sampler (for samples YR-M and YR-J) (Fig. 1 and Table 1). anammox reaction, four genera of Planctomycetales (“Bro- The surface layer of each sediment sample was collected cadia”, “Kuenenia”, “Scalindua” and “Anammoxoglobus”) into plastic containers, tightly sealed, and stored at 4°C in are proposed as anammox bacteria10,24,25,28), although no iso- the dark until experiments. The measurement of anammox late has been established so far. activity was performed within a week at longest after sam- However, there has been limited information available pling except for the samples S1, S2, and S3 which were about the contribution of anammox to the nitrogen cycling stored for one and a half months at 4°C in the dark. and diversity of anammox-related bacteria in natural envi- ronments. At present, the activity and related bacteria at Measurement of anammox and denitrification activity several sites has been investigated with a 15N tracer and The occurrence of the anammox process was examined 12,13,20,26,27,29) 14 15 29 molecular techniques . A PCR amplification of by quantifying N N ( N2) emissions using gas chroma- the 16S rRNA gene related to known anammox bacteria tography-quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in a was carried out in these investigations, however, sequences strictly anaerobic incubation of sediment slurries amended 15 affiliated with the anammox bacterial lineage were recov- with N-labeled or non-labeled NH4Cl and NaNO2 (Suwa et ered at a relatively low efficiency. For instance, when a al. in preparation). Each sediment sample was suspended at Planctomycetales-specific primer was used for PCR ampli- a concentration of 8–25% (wt/vol) in seawater that was pre- fication, only 4 out of 50 clones were recovered as anam- liminarily filtrated through a 0.22 µm cellulose acetate filter mox bacteria-related sequences in a library constructed system (Corning Inc., NY, USA), and the suspension was from the sediment sample showing anammox activity29). thoroughly purged with Ar to remove oxygen. The salinity This could be explained by the inadequacy of the primer in the slurry was adjusted to in situ levels with an oxygen- sets previously available, including nucleotide sequences free inorganic medium developed previously35) except that targeting a broader range of phyla as bacterial universal the medium used in this study contained 7.15 mM NaHCO3 primers or a primer for all Planctomycetales. The low instead of 5 mM KHCO3. Portions (40 ml) of the slurry recovery of anammox bacteria-related 16S rRNA gene frag- were transferred to 67-ml glass vials, and capped tightly ments limits information on the diversity and community with a butyl rubber stopper and an aluminum seal. These structure of anammox bacteria in natural environments, and procedures were carried out inside a glove box under an prevents us from understanding the ecology of the anam- Ar+H2 (anoxic) atmosphere. Subsequently, the headspace mox bacterial community. gas of a vial was replaced with He by repeatedly vacuuming The ultimate goal of our project is to elucidate the eco- and purging with high-purity He gas. The final pressure of logical significance of the anammox process in marine envi- ronments. As a first step to achieving this, here we demon- strate the occurrence of anammox activity and anammox bacteria-related 16S rRNA gene fragments in coastal marine sediment in Japan. Our research areas, the Seto Inland Sea, Osaka Bay and Ise Bay are representative enclosed sea areas in Japan; however, no report has been available on anammox activity there up to now. We also propose effec- tive PCR primer sets to detect anammox bacteria-related 16S rRNA genes with a relatively high recovery efficiency. Materials and Methods Sampling Sediment samples were collected from the Seto Inland Fig. 1. Sampling sites in western Japan. 234 AMANO et al. Table 1. Sample characteristics Sample Location Water depth (m) Date Sediment layer (cm) Seto Inland Sea S1 34°04'N, 133°17'E 28 10 Aug. 05 0–5 S2 34°25'N, 134°30'E 40 9 Aug. 05 0–5 S3 34°30'N, 134°31'E 42 8 Aug. 05 0–5 Osaka Bay OB1 34°39'N, 135°22'E 10.5 18 Apr. 06 0–5 OB2 34°38'N, 135°23'E 11 18 Apr. 06 0–5 Ise Bay IB1 34°43'N, 135°44'E 36 20 Jul. 06 0–2 IB2 34°39'N, 135°55'E 21 20 Jul. 06 0–2 Yodo River estuary YR-M 34°41'N, 135°27'E intertidal 12 May. 06 0–1 YR-J 13 Jun. 06 0–2 29 15 + − the headspace gas with He was 0.15 MPa. The vials con- of N2 gas production in vials amended with NH4 +NO2 . 30 + 15 − taining anoxic sediment slurries were pre-incubated for 1–4 Increases in N2 accumulated in vials with NH4 + NO2 hours in the dark at 20°C before substrates were added, in were expressed as potential denitrification activity. A time order to eliminate the remaining nitrite and nitrate as well as course was used for determining rate constants of both reac- 29 30 dissolved oxygen. tions. Abundances of N2 and N2 gas in vials for a nega- 15 15 Oxygen-free stock solutions of N-labeled NH4Cl tive control experiment with NH4Cl but without nitrite (Shoko-Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, 15N atom%: >99) and were monitored to see if nitrification and denitrification 15 29 NaNO2 (ISOTEC Inc, OH, USA, N atom%: >99) or non- coupled to produce N2.