4 [16] Hydrate Ridge ANME-2a/2c and SRB consortia 1.4 MPa Fed-batch 7.5 [9] Conclusions After 286 days incubation in a simulated cold seep environment under

high methane pressure, ANME-2 and SRB in the selleck kinase inhibitor sediment from Captain Arutyunov Mud Volcano were enriched. Based on biovolume calculation, the populations of ANME-2 and SRB increased for 12.5 times and 8.4 times. Within total biomass volume, 99.7% was accounted from aggregates. Therefore the incubation condition apparently favoured the cells to form aggregates, especially in small size (2<Ø≤5 μm), rather than to selleck chemicals live as single cells. No aggregate bigger than 15 μm in diameter was observed; they apparently divided after reaching a critical size. Based on the 16S rRNA gene clone library, the archaeal diversity was low, and contained only ANME-2 (88%) and MBG-D (12%). In contrast, the bacterial community was highly diverse. Methods Incubation condition In a previous Nepicastat study, the sediment sample originally from Captain Arutyunov Mud Volcano (Gulf of Cadiz, North East Atlantic) was diluted 12 times with artificial sea water medium and incubated in a continuous high-pressure bioreactor at 15°C [11]. This bioreactor system was a simulator for cold seep ecosystems, where sulphate and high-pressure methane were supplied. Because the high apparent affinity for methane (37 mM) in SR-AOM reaction

and low dissolubility of methane in seawater (1.3 mM at 15°C at ambient pressure), it is necessary to supply high pressure methane to obtain high concentration of dissolved methane which can be directly used by microorganisms for high in vitro SR-AOM activity [11]. During this research, the reactor was operated in a fed-batch mode or a continuous mode. When it was in fed-batch mode, the methane pressures were switched between 1, 4.5 and 8 MPa. When it was in continuous mode, the methane pressure was either 1 or 8 MPa and the flow rate was 0.1 ml/min (HRT 100 hours). The SR-AOM activities under different operational conditions have been described previously [11]. To take a slurry sample, the

incubation vessel was open under a nitrogen atmosphere and manually stirred to make the slurry sample homogeneous. The slurry samples before (S1) and Dimethyl sulfoxide after (S2) 286 days incubation were fixed in 4% formaldehyde and stored at 4°C for cell staining. Additional slurry from S2 was stored at -20°C for DNA extraction and clone library analysis. Cell and aggregates quantification To assess the number and the size of cells and aggregates, DAPI (4′, 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole) staining was performed on S1 (after 2000 times dilution) and S2 (after 5600 times dilution). Subsequently, the samples were filtrated onto a circular GTTP polycarbonate filter (0.2 μm, Millipore, Germany) with a diameter of 2.5 cm. The number of cells (or aggregates) was quantified under a microscope (Zeiss, Carl Zeiss Microimaging GmbH, Germany) at 1,000 times magnification. The diameter of a single cell was assumed as 0.