Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 15, 2026

Visualizing Methane-Cycling Microbial Dynamics in Coastal Wetlands
Published on: January 31, 2025
Diversity and identification of methanogenic archaea and sulphate-reducing bacteria in sediments from a pristine
Rodrigo Gouvêa Taketani1, Caio Augusto Yoshiura, Armando Cavalcante Franco Dias
1Molecular and Cellular Biology, Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura, Universidade de São Paulo, 303 Centenário Av., Piracicaba, SP, Brazil. rgtaketani@yahoo.com.br
Abstract:
Mangrove sediments are anaerobic ecosystems rich in organic matter. This environment is optimal for anaerobic microorganisms, such as sulphate-reducing bacteria and methanogenic archaea, which are responsible for nutrient cycling. In this study, the diversity of these two functional guilds was evaluated in a pristine mangrove forest using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and clone library sequencing in a 50 cm vertical profile sampled every 5.0 cm. DGGE profiles indicated that both groups presented higher richness in shallow samples (0-30 cm) with a steep decrease in richness beyond that depth. According to redundancy analysis, this alteration significantly correlated with a decrease in the amount of organic matter. Clone library sequencing indicated that depth had a strong effect on the selection of dissimilatory sulphate reductase (dsrB) operational taxonomic units (OTUs), as indicated by the small number of shared OTUs found in shallow (0.0 cm) and deep (40.0 cm) libraries. On the other hand, methyl coenzyme-M reductase (mcrA) libraries indicated that most of the OTUs found in the shallow library were present in the deep library. These results show that these two guilds co-exist in these mangrove sediments and indicate important roles for these organisms in nutrient cycling within this ecosystem.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Diversity of Archaea III
Diversity of Archaea I
Microbial Mats
Deep Sea Microbial Ecology
Diversity of Archaea II
Diversity of Archaea IV

