Novel hydrocarbon-utilizing soil mycobacteria synthesize unique mycocerosic acids at a Sicilian everlasting fire

Smit, Nadine T.; Villanueva, Laura; Rush, Darci; Grassa, Fausto; Witkowski, Caitlyn R.; Holzheimer, Mira; Minnaard, Adriaan J.; Sinninghe Damsté, Jaap S.; Schouten, Stefan

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-1463-2021

Articles | Volume 18, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-1463-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-1463-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 4

Research article

|

01 Mar 2021

Research article |

| 01 Mar 2021

Novel hydrocarbon-utilizing soil mycobacteria synthesize unique mycocerosic acids at a Sicilian everlasting fire

Nadine T. Smit, Laura Villanueva, Darci Rush, Fausto Grassa, Caitlyn R. Witkowski, Mira Holzheimer, Adriaan J. Minnaard, Jaap S. Sinninghe Damsté, and Stefan Schouten

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Final revised paper (published on 01 Mar 2021)
Preprint (discussion started on 30 Oct 2020)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Review', Rienk Smittenberg, 24 Nov 2020
- AC1: 'Response referee comments (Rienk Smittenberg)', Nadine Smit, 09 Dec 2020
RC2: 'Review of Smit et al.', Gordon Inglis, 03 Dec 2020
- AC2: 'Response referee comments (Gordon Inglis)', Nadine Smit, 09 Dec 2020
EC1: 'Additional comments from Associate Editor', Sebastian Naeher, 06 Dec 2020
- AC3: 'Response associate editor comments (Sebastian Naeher)', Nadine Smit, 09 Dec 2020

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (15 Dec 2020) by Sebastian Naeher

AR by Nadine Smit on behalf of the Authors (19 Dec 2020) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (22 Dec 2020) by Sebastian Naeher

AR by Nadine Smit on behalf of the Authors (24 Dec 2020)

Short summary

Soils from an everlasting fire (gas seep) in Sicily, Italy, reveal high relative abundances of novel uncultivated mycobacteria and unique ¹³C-depleted mycocerosic acids (multi-methyl branched fatty acids) close to the main gas seep. Our results imply that mycocerosic acids in combination with their depleted δ¹³C values offer a new biomarker tool to study the role of soil mycobacteria as hydrocarbon consumers in the modern and past global carbon cycle.