北京高压科学研究中心
Center for High Pressure Science &Technology Advanced Research

P9-Liang Lewen_abstract+photo

Metagenomics and enrichment combining approach to understand the mechanisms of anaerobic methane oxidization (AOM) in South China Sea

Lewen Liang1, Fengping Wang1*

1. State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolisms, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology,

Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240

* e-mail: fengpingw@sjtu.edu.cn


Methane is a highly effective greenhouse gas with greenhouse effect about 20 times higher than CO2. Marine sediments are the largest methane reservoir but very little methane is emitted from the ocean mainly because of anaerobic methane oxidation within the anoxic sediments. Anaerobic methane oxidization is mainly occurred in couple with sulphate reduction in marine environments. Meanwhile, accumulating evidences suggested that AOM in marine sediments may have divergent mechanisms, for example, apart from coupling to sulphate reduction, it may also associate with iron reduction. Since ANME are not yet culturable in the laboratory, it remains a big challenge to understand the mechanisms of methane oxidation in the ocean. Here we are utilizing a combined approach of enrichment and metagenome to understand AOM in the sediments of South China Sea (SCS). Our sample was collected from the Qiong Dong Nan area of SCS where AOM activities have been detected. We set a series of incubations using different substrates as well as different incubation conditions such as high pressure to enrich the AOM archaea. The processes are under investigation, and the enrichments will be sequenced to reveal the metabolic pathways of AOM archaea, their environmental adaptation and evolution.