Mammal bones sustain rich chemoautotrophic microbial communities that are consumed by a range of marine invertebrates, with bacteria playing a fundamental role making the organic matter retained in the bones available to other organisms. Our major aim here is to characterize the phylogenetic diversity of bacteria associated with Mediterranean shallow-water bones (whale, pig, and cow) examined at two different times after colonization, and compare it to bacterial communities developing on whale bones in the Southern Ocean. We sequenced 16S amplicons for approximately 50 clones from each of the 5 bone samples studied here, resulting in 215 OTUs. Our preliminary microbial community analysis resulted into two groups. Cluster 1 with cow and whale bones from the Mediterranean (3 months) and whale bones from the Southern Ocean (1 year), characterized by abundant Epsilon-proteobacteria, usually the first colonizers in anaerobic environments. Cluster 2 with Mediterranean cow (9 months) and pig bones (12 months), characterized by abundant Thiotrichales. Among the Thiotrichales, two different species of Beggiatoa spp. appeared in two different bones in the Mediterranean samples, indicating that Beggiatoa spp. can occur in the same area. Our work confirms that microbial mats associated with mammal bones in the shallow waters of the Mediterranean and the Southern Ocean are highly diverse with a predominance of Gamma- and Epsilon-proteobacteria.

中文翻译：

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在温带和极地地区与哺乳动物骨骼相关的海洋微生物生物膜的系统发育特征

哺乳动物的骨骼维持着丰富的化学自养微生物群落，这些微生物被一系列海洋无脊椎动物所消耗，细菌起着基本作用，使保留在骨骼中的有机物可供其他生物利用。我们的主要目的是表征定居后两个不同时间检查的与地中海浅水骨骼（鲸鱼，猪和牛）有关的细菌的系统发育多样性，并将其与南大洋鲸鱼骨骼上发育的细菌群落进行比较。我们对本文研究的5个骨样品中的每个样品的约50个克隆进行了16S扩增子测序，结果得到215个OTU。我们初步的微生物群落分析分为两组。聚类1，其中来自地中海的母牛和鲸鱼骨头（3个月）和来自南大洋的鲸鱼骨头（1年），其特点是具有丰富的Epsilon变形杆菌，通常是厌氧环境中的第一批定植者。第2组为地中海母牛（9个月）和猪骨头（12个月），特征是丰富的硫io。在Thiotrichales中，有两种不同的秋海棠属 在地中海样品中出现在两个不同的骨骼中，表明该虫属。可以在同一区域发生。我们的工作证实，与地中海和南大洋浅水区的哺乳动物骨骼相关的微生物垫具有多种多样的优势，主要是γ-和Epsilon变形杆菌。