Sponsor
The collection of data within the Taupō Volcanic Zone, as part of the 1000 Springs Project (https://1000springs.org.nz/), was funded by a Smart Ideas grant (C05X1203 – Microbial Bioinventory of Geothermal Ecosystems), which was awarded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE) of the Aotearoa-New Zealand Government to M.B.S. and S.C.C.; J.F.P. was supported by a Te Pū Ao-GNS Science Postgraduate Scholarship under the Geothermal Resources of New Zealand (GRN) programme, and the Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato-University of Waikato Hilary Jolly Memorial Scholarship for freshwater ecology research in Aotearoa-New Zealand. ALR was funded by the US-National Science Foundation (DEB-1134877), with thanks to Emily St John, John Donanho, Nicole Wagner, and John Kelly for bioinformatics assistance. C.K.L., M.B.S., C.R.C. and H.E.W. were supported by the Aotearoa-New Zealand Marsden Fund (UOW1701 and UOC2201, respectively). D.R.C. and E.S.B. acknowledge support from the US-National Science Foundation (EAR-1820658) and NASA (80NSSC19M0150). The authors also wish to thank David Waite for preliminary phylogenomics of the Hydrogenothermaceae.
Published In
Nature Communications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-2024
Subjects
Phylogenomics, Phylogeny (Botany)
Abstract
Allopatric speciation has been difficult to examine among microorganisms, with prior reports of endemism restricted to sub-genus level taxa. Previous microbial community analysis via 16S rRNA gene sequencing of 925 geothermal springs from the Taupō Volcanic Zone (TVZ), Aotearoa-New Zealand, revealed widespread distribution and abundance of a single bacterial genus across 686 of these ecosystems (pH 1.2-9.6 and 17.4-99.8 °C). Here, we present evidence to suggest that this genus, Venenivibrio (phylum Aquificota), is endemic to Aotearoa-New Zealand. A specific environmental niche that increases habitat isolation was identified, with maximal read abundance of Venenivibrio occurring at pH 4-6, 50-70 °C, and low oxidation-reduction potentials. This was further highlighted by genomic and culture-based analyses of the only characterised species for the genus, Venenivibrio stagnispumantis CP.B2T, which confirmed a chemolithoautotrophic metabolism dependent on hydrogen oxidation. While similarity between Venenivibrio populations illustrated that dispersal is not limited across the TVZ, extensive amplicon, metagenomic, and phylogenomic analyses of global microbial communities from DNA sequence databases indicates Venenivibrio is geographically restricted to the Aotearoa-New Zealand archipelago. We conclude that geographic isolation, complemented by physicochemical constraints, has resulted in the establishment of an endemic bacterial genus.
Rights
Copyright (c) 2024 The Authors
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1038/s41467-023-43960-2
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/41048
Citation Details
Power, J. F., Carere, C. R., Welford, H. E., Hudson, D. T., Lee, K. C., Moreau, J. W., ... & Stott, M. B. (2024). A genus in the bacterial phylum Aquificota appears to be endemic to Aotearoa-New Zealand. Nature Communications, 15(1), 179.