Bacterial Composition and Diversity in Deep-Sea Sediments from the Southern Colombian Caribbean Sea

Abstract

Deep-sea sediments are considered an extreme environment due to high atmospheric pressure and low temperatures, harboring novel microorganisms. To explore marine bacterial diversity in the southern Colombian Caribbean Sea, this study used 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing to estimate bacterial composition and diversity of six samples collected at different depths (1681 to 2409 m) in two localities (CCS_A and CCS_B). We found 1842 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) assigned to bacteria. The most abundant phylum was Proteobacteria (54.74%), followed by Bacteroidetes (24.36%) and Firmicutes (9.48%). Actinobacteria and Chloroflexi were also identified, but their dominance varied between samples. At the class-level, Alphaproteobacteria was most abundant (28.4%), followed by Gammaproteobacteria (24.44%) and Flavobacteria (16.97%). The results demonstrated that some bacteria were common to all sample sites, whereas other bacteria were unique to specific samples. The dominant species was Erythrobacter citreus, followed by Gramella sp. Overall, we found that, in deeper marine sediments (e.g., locality CCS_B), the bacterial alpha diversity decreased while the dominance of several genera increased; moreover, for locality CCS_A, our results suggest that the bacterial diversity could be associated with total organic carbon content. We conclude that physicochemical properties (e.g., organic matter content) create a unique environment and play an important role in shaping bacterial communities and their diversity.

Keywords

• bacteria
• 16S rRNA
• metabarcoding
• marine sediments
• depth