MICROBIAL SURVIVAL: The Paleome: A Sedimentary Genetic Record of Past Microbial Communities

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Abstract
Molecular genetic methods were used to analyze the remnants of microbial ecosystems contained within an ancient oceanic microbial habitat that was recovered from a continental drilled core of black shale ∼100 million years in age. Bacterial ribosomal RNA genes were vertically amplified from the six different depths of a black shale core associated with a phosphate- rich stratum, defined as one of the mid-Cretaceous oceanic anoxic events (OAEs). Although the black shale core was recovered from a terrestrial coring effort, the recovered 16S rRNA gene sequences showed affinity to microbial communities previously seen in deep-sea sedimentary environments (i.e., the microbial assemblage was easily recognizable as a marine community). In particular, a number of 16S rRNA gene clones of oceanic sulfate-reducing bacteria within the δ-Proteobacteria predominated at the OAE layer. The recovered bacterial DNA signatures are consistent with the interpretation that the sequences are derived from the past microbial communities buried in either sea-bottom or subseafloor environments during the sedimentation process and, after ceasing growth, preserved until the present. Astrobiology 5, 141–153.