Assessment of prokaryotic communities in Southwestern Atlantic deep-sea sediments reveals prevalent methanol-oxidising Methylomirabilales

Continental slopes can play a significant contribution to marine productivity and carbon cycling. These regions can harbour distinct geological features, such as salt diapirs and pockmarks, in which their depressions may serve as natural sediment traps where different compounds can accumulate. We investigated the prokaryotic communities in surface (0-2 cm) and subsurface (18-20 or 22-24 cm) sediments from a salt diapir and pockmark field in Santos Basin, Southwest Atlantic Ocean. Metabarcoding of 16 samples revealed that surface sediments were dominated by the archaeal class Nitrososphaeria, while the bacterial class Dehalococcoidia was the most prevalent in subsurface samples. Sediment strata were found to be a significant factor explaining 27% of the variability in community composition. However, no significant difference was observed among geomorphological features. We also performed a metagenomic analysis of three surface samples and analysed the highest quality metagenome-assembled genome retrieved, which belonged to the family CSP1-5, phylum Methylomirabilota. This non-methanotrophic methylotroph contains genes encoding for methanol oxidation and Calvin Cycle pathways, along with diverse functions that may contribute to its adaptation to deep-sea habitats and to oscillating environmental conditions. By integrating metabarcoding and metagenomic approaches, we reported that CSP1-5 is prevalent in the sediment samples from Santos Basin slope, indicating the potential importance of methanol metabolism in this region. Finally, using a phylogenetic approach integrating 16S rRNA sequences assigned to Methylomirabilota in this study with those from a public database, we argued that CSP1-5 public sequences might be misclassified as Methylomirabilaceae (the methanotrophic clade) and, therefore, the role of these organisms and the methanol cycling could also be neglected in other environments.

Automated summary

This study investigates the prokaryotic communities in sediment samples from a salt diapir and pockmark field in Santos Basin. The results show that the composition of prokaryotic communities differs between surface and subsurface sediments, with Nitrososphaeria dominating in surface sediments and Dehalococcoidia dominating in subsurface sediments. Additionally, a metagenomic analysis reveals the prevalence of CSP1-5, a non-methanotrophic methylotroph, in the sediment samples.