Structure and Functional Potential of Arctic Sea Sediment Microbiota

Arctic ecosystems are affected by negative influence of climate change, pollution, and overexploitation of resources. Microorganisms playing a key role in preserving extreme econiches are poorly studied and require the use of modern methods for studying both their biodiversity and physiological activity. We applied Illumina MiSeq to the high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing study of four Laptev Sea sediments from 64 - 185 m depth, using next generation sequencing enables rapid analysis of composition and diversity of prokaryotic communities. Although the dominant phylum in all samples was Proteobacteria, only the deepest sample contained a high number of archaeal organisms (19%) with the predominance of Methanosarcinaceace family in comparison with less 1% in the other three samples. This deepest sample had the lowest biodiversity and richness indices. Comparison of functional profiles of communities using Global Mapper tool revealed similar average abundance of infectiousness, drug resistance and environmental adaptation determinants in all samples, and high functional abundance for xenobiotic degradation in two samples. Among cultivated bacteria which could be promising producers of secreted RNase the representatives of Bacillus and Lysinibacillus genera were found. Our results contribute to improve our understanding of richness and ecological role of Laptev Sea microbiota.