Contrasting community composition of endospores and vegetative Firmicutes in a marine sediment suggests both endogenous and exogenous sources of endospore accumulation.

Bacterial endospores are highly abundant in marine sediments, but their taxonomic identity and ecology is largely unknown. We selectively extracted DNA from endospores and vegetative cells and sequenced 16S rRNA genes to characterize the composition of the endospore and vegetative Firmicutes communities in the sediment and water column of Aarhus Bay (Denmark). The endospore community in the sediment was dominated by the families Bacillaceae, Lachnospiraceae, Clostridiaceae and Ruminoccocaceae. These families were also represented in the vegetative community in the sediment and the endospore community in the water column. OTUs of high relative abundance in the endospore community were also represented in the vegetative Firmicutes community. Other OTUs were exclusively found in the endospore communities. This suggests that endospores accumulate in marine sediments due to passive deposition from the water column and sporulation of vegetative cells in the sediment. Some OTUs were detected in the endospore community of the water column and the vegetative community the sediment indicating that endospores deposited from the water column may germinate upon burial/deposition in the sediment. We provide novel insight into the composition of endospore communities in marine sediments and highlight their role in microbial dispersal and as a seed bank in subsurface sediments.

The novel bacterial phylum Calditrichaeota is diverse, widespread and abundant in marine sediments and has the capacity to degrade detrital proteins.

Calditrichaeota is a recently recognized bacterial phylum with three cultured representatives, isolated from hydrothermal vents. Here we expand the phylogeny and ecology of this novel phylum with metagenome-derived and single-cell genomes from six uncultivated bacteria previously not recognized as members of Calditrichaeota. Using 16S rRNA gene sequences from these genomes, we then identified 322 16S rRNA gene sequences from cultivation-independent studies that can now be classified as Calditrichaeota for the first time. This dataset was used to re-analyse a collection of 16S rRNA gene amplicon datasets from marine sediments showing that the Calditrichaeota are globally distributed in the seabed at high abundance, making up to 6.7% of the total bacterial community. This wide distribution and high abundance of Calditrichaeota in cold marine sediment has gone unrecognized until now. All Calditrichaeota genomes show indications of a chemoorganoheterotrophic metabolism with the potential to degrade detrital proteins through the use of extracellular peptidases. Most of the genomes contain genes encoding proteins that confer O2 tolerance, consistent with the relatively high abundance of Calditrichaeota in surficial bioturbated part of the seabed and, together with the genes encoding extracellular peptidases, suggestive of a general ecophysiological niche for this newly recognized phylum in marine sediment.