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Promethearchaeota Persistence in Marine Sediments Frozen for Over 100 kyr.

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Diverse Promethearchaeota (Asgard archaea) can survive over 100,000 years in ancient marine permafrost. These microbes maintain high DNA integrity without apparent special genetic adaptations, suggesting long-term survival is common in this archaeal group.

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Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Archaea
  • Geomicrobiology

Background:

  • Promethearchaeota, a group of "Asgard" archaea, are widespread in Earth's subsurface.
  • Their ability to survive geological timescales in a dormant state is hypothesized but difficult to test experimentally.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the long-term survival of Promethearchaeota in ancient marine permafrost.
  • To assess the DNA integrity and potential adaptations of these microbes over >100,000 years.

Main Methods:

  • Reconstruction of 22 Promethearchaeota MAGs from >100 kyr marine permafrost.
  • Analysis of cell integrity using catalyzed reporter deposition in situ hybridization.
  • Assessment of DNA integrity and completeness of MAGs before and after DNA repair.

Main Results:

  • Intact Promethearchaeota cells were observed in permafrost samples.
  • Six high-completeness MAGs from intracellular DNA showed high integrity, unaffected by DNA repair enzymes.
  • Other MAGs exhibited low completeness, dramatically improving after DNA repair, indicating degradation.
  • High-integrity MAGs shared metabolic and DNA/protein repair genes with non-permafrost relatives.

Conclusions:

  • Diverse Promethearchaeota clades can survive for over 100,000 years in marine permafrost.
  • Survival appears to be a common trait, not requiring unique genetic adaptations.
  • Ancient permafrost serves as a valuable natural laboratory for studying long-term microbial survival.