Diversity of autotrophic organisms and their carbon fixation pathways at hydrothermal vent systems on the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge
Metabolism, Biochemistry and Genetics of Microorganisms
Final Report Abstract
During this postdoc project at the Center for Deep Sea Research at the University of Bergen, I collected biofilms and chimney samples from the newly discovered vent field “Fåvne” on the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge. To obtain a representative metagenomic dataset spanning the whole extend of the Mohn’s Ridge between Jan Mayen and Svalbard, I extracted and sequenced DNA from these samples as well as from frozen samples collected at the hydrothermal vent fields “Soria Moria”, “Bruse”, “Ægir”, and “Loki’s Castle” during the last ten years. This dataset will form the basis of a publication comparing the chemosynthetic microbial communities living at these geochemically distinct sites, with a focus on their use of different pathways for carbon fixations as an adaption to their environments. To confidentially predict the presence of carbon fixation pathways in Metagenome-Assembled Genomes, I developed a python script that annotates their presence or absence based on up-to-date, manually curated pathway definitions.
