Discovering hidden archaeal and bacterial lipid producers in a euxinic marine system
Boukhchtaber, D.C.; von Meijenfeldt, F. A.B.; Sahonero Canavesi, D.; Dorhout, D.; Bale, N.J.; Hopmans, E.C.; Villanueva, L. (2025). Discovering hidden archaeal and bacterial lipid producers in a euxinic marine system. Environ. Microbiol. 27(3): e70054. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.70054
In: Environmental Microbiology. Blackwell Scientific Publishers: Oxford. ISSN 1462-2912; e-ISSN 1462-2920, more
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| Author keywords |
(genome-resolved) metagenomics; Black Sea; branched GDGTs (brGDGTs); glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGT); high-resolution accurate mass spectrometry; isoprenoid GDGT (isoGDGTs); membrane lipids; membrane-spanning lipid synthase; membrane-spanning lipids; tetraether synthase |
| Authors | | Top |
- Boukhchtaber, D.C.
- von Meijenfeldt, F. A.B., more
- Sahonero Canavesi, D., more
- Dorhout, D., more
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| Abstract |
Bacterial membrane lipids are typically characterised by fatty acid bilayers linked through ester bonds, whereas those of Archaea are characterised by ether-linked isoprenoids forming bilayers or monolayers of membrane-spanning lipids known as isopre?noidal glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (isoGDGTs). However, this understanding has been reconsidered with the identifica?tion of branched GDGTs (brGDGTs), which are membrane-spanning ether-bound branched alkyl fatty acids of bacterial origin, though their producers are often unidentified. The limited availability of microbial cultures constrains the understanding of the biological sources of these membrane lipids, thus limiting their use as biomarkers. To address this issue, we identified membrane lipids in the Black Sea using high-resolution accurate mass/mass spectrometry and inferred their potential producers by targeting lipid biosynthetic pathways encoded on the metagenome, in metagenome-assembled genomes and unbinned scaffolds. We also identified brGDGTs and highly branched GDGTs in the suboxic and euxinic waters, potentially attributed to Planctomycetota, Cloacimonadota, Desulfobacterota, Chloroflexota, Actinobacteria and Myxococcota—based on their lipid biosynthetic genomic potential. These findings introduce new possibilities for using specific brGDGTs as biomarkers of anoxic conditions in marine environments and highlight the role of these membrane lipids in microbial adaptation. |
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