TY - JOUR
T1 - Aromatic compound-degrading taxa in an anoxic coal seam microbiome from the Surat Basin, Australia
AU - Campbell, Bronwyn C.
AU - Gong, Se
AU - Greenfield, Paul
AU - Midgley, David J.
AU - Paulsen, Ian T.
AU - George, Simon C.
PY - 2021/5
Y1 - 2021/5
N2 - Methane is an important energy resource internationally, and a large proportion of this methane is produced by microbial communities living in coal seams. Despite the value of this resource for human energy security, our understanding of the metabolic roles played by specific taxa during the biodegradation of coal to methane in situ is quite limited. In order to develop a greater understanding of microbial catabolism on coal, a community from a coal seam in the Surat Basin, Australia, was incubated on 10 different aromatic organic compounds: coronene, benzo[a]pyrene, pyrene, phenanthrene, naphthalene, ethylbenzene, phenol, benzoate, vanillate and syringate. Each of these aromatic compounds either occurs in coal or is a possible product of the coal biodegradation process. 16S rRNA sequencing revealed substantial changes to each community in response to each aromatic carbon substrate provided. Abundant taxa from these substrate-specific communities were identified and their probable catabolic roles proposed based on literature searches of related taxa. This study is the first to link specific coal seam taxa to aromatic substrates available in coal seam environments. Two conceptual models of the putative degradation pathways and key taxa responsible are proposed.
AB - Methane is an important energy resource internationally, and a large proportion of this methane is produced by microbial communities living in coal seams. Despite the value of this resource for human energy security, our understanding of the metabolic roles played by specific taxa during the biodegradation of coal to methane in situ is quite limited. In order to develop a greater understanding of microbial catabolism on coal, a community from a coal seam in the Surat Basin, Australia, was incubated on 10 different aromatic organic compounds: coronene, benzo[a]pyrene, pyrene, phenanthrene, naphthalene, ethylbenzene, phenol, benzoate, vanillate and syringate. Each of these aromatic compounds either occurs in coal or is a possible product of the coal biodegradation process. 16S rRNA sequencing revealed substantial changes to each community in response to each aromatic carbon substrate provided. Abundant taxa from these substrate-specific communities were identified and their probable catabolic roles proposed based on literature searches of related taxa. This study is the first to link specific coal seam taxa to aromatic substrates available in coal seam environments. Two conceptual models of the putative degradation pathways and key taxa responsible are proposed.
KW - coal seam gas
KW - coalbed methane
KW - aromatic compound
KW - aromatic hydrocarbon
KW - degradation pathway
KW - coal seam microbiology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105695032&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/femsec/fiab053
DO - 10.1093/femsec/fiab053
M3 - Article
C2 - 33791788
AN - SCOPUS:85105695032
VL - 97
SP - 1
EP - 13
JO - FEMS Microbiology Ecology
JF - FEMS Microbiology Ecology
SN - 0168-6496
IS - 5
M1 - fiab053
ER -