Evidence for H consumption by uncultured Desulfobacterales in coastal sediments.

Molecular hydrogen (H ) is the key intermediate in the anaerobic degradation of organic matter. Its removal by H -oxidizing microorganisms is essential to keep anaerobic degradation energetically favourable. Sulfate-reducing microorganisms (SRM) are known as the main H scavengers in anoxic marine sediments. Although the community of marine SRM has been extensively studied, those consuming H in situ are completely unknown. We combined metagenomics, PCR-based clone libraries, single-amplified genomes (SAGs) and metatranscriptomics to identify potentially H -consuming SRM in anoxic coastal sediments. The vast majority of SRM-related H ase sequences were assigned to group 1b and 1c [NiFe]-H ases of the deltaproteobacterial order Desulfobacterales. Surprisingly, the same sequence types were similarly highly expressed in spring and summer, suggesting that these are stable and integral members of the H -consuming community. Notably, one sequence cluster from the SRM group 1 consistently accounted for around half of all [NiFe]-H ase transcripts. Using SAGs, we could link this cluster with the 16S rRNA genes of the uncultured Sva0081-group of the family Desulfobacteraceae. Sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons and H ase gene libraries suggested consistently high in situ abundance of the Sva0081 group also in other marine sediments. Together with other Desulfobacterales these likely are important H -scavengers in marine sediments.