Diversity in methane enrichments from agricultural soil revealed by DGGE separation of PCR amplified 16S rDNA fragments

Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) profiles of PCR amplified V3 regions of 16S rRNA genes were used to assess the diversity in enrichment cultures with methane as the only carbon and energy source. The enrichments originated from two agricultural soils. One was a sandy soil with low (10%) organic content, the other an organic soil with approximately 50% organic content. DGGE provided a fast evaluation of the distribution of amplifiable sequence types indicating that specific bacterial populations had been enriched from each soil. The DGGE profiles revealed a broader range of amplified V3 fragments in the community derived from organic soil than from sandy soil. Fragments from 19 individual DGGE bands were sequenced and compared with 27 previously published 16S rRNA gene sequences. The sequences confirmed the high diversity with the presence of different methylotrophic populations in each enrichment. No affiliation was found with type I methanotrophs, instead type II methanotroph sequences were found in the enrichments from both soil types. Some of the fragments from the organic soil enrichment were not affiliated with methylotrophs. Most of the sequences clustered distantly on a branch within the α-Proteobacteria. These facts suggested that previously undescribed methylotrophs are abundant in methane enrichments from agricultural soil.