Hydrocarbon Seeps and Genetic Sequencing of Microbial Communities

Beneath the ocean surface, a unique community ekes out an existence in an extreme environment. While from the outside many of these tiny creatures are insignificant and indistinguishable from each other, marine microbes are widely varied and play a crucial role in the global methane cycle. Every year microbes are responsible for consuming an estimated 75 Teragrams (10^12 grams) of methane that seeps from the ocean sediment and would otherwise escape into the atmosphere to contribute to global warming. Categorizing communities based on genetic sequencing has become a critical step in understanding these creatures. The highly conserved 16S RNA subunit is often sequenced first, as an efficient and cost effective method to begin establishing links between the different microbe varieties, whose genetic codes are assembled into a national database for further comparison.

Under the precise conditions, temperature and pressure can cause methane to be surrounded by water molecules and trapped beneath the sea floor, forming mounds referred to as “pingos”. The microbial communities at these pingos are the primary focus of this research. The 16S subunit will be used to establish the variety and abundance of the different kinds of microbes, as well as give a preliminary idea of the functional capacity of the community based on comparison to known gene sequences. Answers from the 16S sequencing will be used to direct further research projects. By obtaining detailed information on the genetic relationships between marine microbes and viruses we can better understand the role they play in the ocean ecosystem.