RESEARCH ARTICLE Microbial diversity in nonsulfur,sulfurand iron geothermal steam vents Courtney A. Benson, Richard W. Bizzoco, David A. Lipson & Scott T. Kelley Department of Biology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA Correspondence: Scott T. Kelley, Abstract Department of Biology, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, Fumaroles, commonly called steam vents, are ubiquitous features of geothermal CA 92182-4614, USA. Tel.: 11 619 594 habitats. Recent studies have discovered microorganisms in condensed fumarole 5371; fax: 11 619 594 5676; e-mail: steam, but fumarole deposits have proven refractory to DNA isolation. In this
[email protected] study, we report the development of novel DNA isolation approaches for fumarole deposit microbial community analysis. Deposit samples were collected from steam Received 24 June 2010; revised 26 October vents and caves in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Yellowstone National Park and 2010; accepted 3 December 2010. Lassen Volcanic National Park. Samples were analyzed by X-ray microanalysis and Final version published online 1 February 2011. classified as nonsulfur, sulfur or iron-dominated steam deposits. We experienced considerable difficulty in obtaining high-yield, high-quality DNA for cloning: only DOI:10.1111/j.1574-6941.2011.01047.x half of all the samples ultimately yielded sequences. Analysis of archaeal 16S rRNA Editor: Alfons Stams gene sequences showed that sulfur steam deposits were dominated by Sulfolobus and Acidianus, while nonsulfur deposits contained mainly unknown Crenarchaeota. Keywords Several of these novel Crenarchaeota lineages were related to chemoautotrophic 16S; phylogeny; microbial community; ammonia oxidizers, indicating that fumaroles represent a putative habitat for Crenarchaeota; Sulfolobus.