TY - JOUR
T1 - Molecular hydrogen in seawater supports growth of diverse marine bacteria
AU - Lappan, Rachael
AU - Shelley, Guy
AU - Islam, Zahra F.
AU - Leung, Pok Man
AU - Lockwood, Scott
AU - Nauer, Philipp A.
AU - Jirapanjawat, Thanavit
AU - Ni, Gaofeng
AU - Chen, Ya-Jou
AU - Kessler, Adam J.
AU - Williams, Timothy J.
AU - Cavicchioli, Ricardo
AU - Baltar, Federico
AU - Cook, Perran L.M.
AU - Morales, Sergio E.
AU - Greening, Chris
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by ARC Discovery Project grants (DP180101762 and DP210101595 both awarded to P.L.M.C. and C.G.; DP150100244 awarded to R.C.), an ARC DECRA Fellowship (DE170100310; salary for C.G.), an NHMRC EL2 Fellowship (APP1178715; salary for C.G.), an Australian Government Research Training Stipend Scholarship (awarded to P.M.L.), Monash International Tuition Scholarships (awarded to P.M.L. and Y.-J.C.) and Monash Postgraduate Publications Awards (awarded to Z.F.I. and Y.-J.C.).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Molecular hydrogen (H2) is an abundant and readily accessible energy source in marine systems, but it remains unknown whether marine microbial communities consume this gas. Here we use a suite of approaches to show that marine bacteria consume H2 to support growth. Genes for H2-uptake hydrogenases are prevalent in global ocean metagenomes, highly expressed in metatranscriptomes and found across eight bacterial phyla. Capacity for H2 oxidation increases with depth and decreases with oxygen concentration, suggesting that H2 is important in environments with low primary production. Biogeochemical measurements of tropical, temperate and subantarctic waters, and axenic cultures show that marine microbes consume H2 supplied at environmentally relevant concentrations, yielding enough cell-specific power to support growth in bacteria with low energy requirements. Conversely, our results indicate that oxidation of carbon monoxide (CO) primarily supports survival. Altogether, H2 is a notable energy source for marine bacteria and may influence oceanic ecology and biogeochemistry.
AB - Molecular hydrogen (H2) is an abundant and readily accessible energy source in marine systems, but it remains unknown whether marine microbial communities consume this gas. Here we use a suite of approaches to show that marine bacteria consume H2 to support growth. Genes for H2-uptake hydrogenases are prevalent in global ocean metagenomes, highly expressed in metatranscriptomes and found across eight bacterial phyla. Capacity for H2 oxidation increases with depth and decreases with oxygen concentration, suggesting that H2 is important in environments with low primary production. Biogeochemical measurements of tropical, temperate and subantarctic waters, and axenic cultures show that marine microbes consume H2 supplied at environmentally relevant concentrations, yielding enough cell-specific power to support growth in bacteria with low energy requirements. Conversely, our results indicate that oxidation of carbon monoxide (CO) primarily supports survival. Altogether, H2 is a notable energy source for marine bacteria and may influence oceanic ecology and biogeochemistry.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85147518966&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41564-023-01322-0
DO - 10.1038/s41564-023-01322-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 36747116
AN - SCOPUS:85147518966
SN - 2058-5276
VL - 8
SP - 581
EP - 595
JO - Nature Microbiology
JF - Nature Microbiology
ER -