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AME 58:241-248 (2010)  -  DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/ame01373

Methane- and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria at the chemocline of Lake Kinneret (Israel)

Pilar Junier1,2,*, Ok-Sun Kim2,3, Werner Eckert4, Peter Casper5, Johannes F. Imhoff6, Karl-Paul Witzel2, Ora Hadas4

1Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Station 6, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
2Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, August-Thienemann-Str. 2, 24306 Plön, Germany
3School of Biological Sciences and Institute of Microbiology, Seoul National University, 56-1 Shillim-dong, Kwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742, ROK
4Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research, The Kinneret Limnological Laboratory, PO Box 447, 14950 Migdal, Israel
5Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Alte Fischerhütte 2, 16775 Stechlin, Germany
6Leibniz-Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Kiel, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, 24105 Kiel, Germany
7Present address: Laboratory of Microbiology, University of Neuchâtel, Rue Emile-Argand 11, 2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland

ABSTRACT: The vertical distribution of methane- and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (MOB and AOB, respectively), and the physicochemical conditions in the chemocline of Lake Kinneret (Israel) were studied at a resolution of 10 cm from 16.2 to 17.7 m depth. Profiles of the chemical parameters indicated decreasing concentrations of methane (from 22.4 to 0.11 µmol l–1) and ammonia (from 14.2 to 8.4 µmol l–1) towards the water surface and in close proximity to the chemocline. The disappearance of methane coincided with methane oxidation that could be corroborated throughout this layer with highest rates at 17.4 to 17.6 m. Disappearance of ammonia could not be linked to ammonia oxidation exclusively. The genes pmoA and the homologous amoA (coding for subunit α of the methane and ammonia monooxygenase, respectively) were amplified by PCR. The products were analyzed by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) and sequencing of clone libraries. The results demonstrated that different MOB and AOB communities are established along the concentration gradient within the narrow layer of the metalimnetic chemocline. Changes in the intensity of the T-RFLP peaks and the frequency of different groups of alpha- and gammaproteobacterial MOB, and betaproteobacterial AOB, coincided with the concentration gradients of methane, ammonia, nitrate, and oxygen in the chemocline. This suggests that different communities of MOB, and to a lesser extent AOB, contribute to the formation of chemical gradients of their particular substrates in the chemocline.


KEY WORDS: amoA · pmoA · Chemocline · Ammonia · Methane


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Cite this article as: Junier P, Kim OS, Eckert W, Casper P, Imhoff JF, Witzel KP, Hadas O (2010) Methane- and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria at the chemocline of Lake Kinneret (Israel). Aquat Microb Ecol 58:241-248. https://doi.org/10.3354/ame01373

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