Open AccessMicrobial diversity with dominance of 16S rRNA gene sequences with high GC contents at 74 and 98 °C subsurface crude oil deposits in Japan
Author(s) -
Yamane Kunio,
Hattori Yoshiyuki,
Ohtagaki Hiroshi,
Fujiwara Kazuhiro
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
fems microbiology ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.377
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1574-6941
pISSN - 0168-6496
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6941.2011.01044.x
Subject(s) - biology , archaea , 16s ribosomal rna , thermophile , microorganism , bacteria , ribosomal rna , dominance (genetics) , thermotoga maritima , population , food science , botany , microbiology and biotechnology , gene , biochemistry , genetics , escherichia coli , demography , sociology
We prepared DNA from the production waters of oil deposits and wellheads of the high‐ and hypertemperature Japanese oil wells #AR39 (depth, 1230 m; temperature, 74 °C; pressure, 2.92 MPa) and #SR123 (depth, 1687 m; temperature, 98 °C; pressure, 11.3 MPa) to detect indigenous bacterial and archaeal microorganisms. We used PCR to amplify the 16S rRNA genes of microbial communities and characterized them based on their sequences. A few species of microorganisms with high GC contents were detected in samples from oil deposits, whereas the microbial constituents and their GC contents were diverse in wellhead samples. A comparison of the composition of the microbial communities found that the predominant indigenous populations in the #SR123 oil deposit were Thermotoga hypogea ‐, Thermotoga petrophila ‐ and Thermodesulfobacterium commune ‐like bacteria with a 61–63% GC content in their 16S rRNA gene sequences, and Archaeoglobus fulgidus ‐like archaea with a 65% GC content, whereas the major population in #AR39 comprised Thermacetogenium phaeum ‐ and Fervidobacterium pennavorans ‐like bacteria and Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus ‐like archaea with a 60%, 60% and 61% GC content, respectively.