Award: OCE-1235432

Most of the biodiversity of life on Earth is microbial. At deep-sea vents, microorganisms form the base of the food web, fueling the chemosynthetic-based ecosystem. Here, as the very hot hydrothermal fluids mix with the cold seawater, minerals precipitate out of solution to form mineral deposits called ?chimneys?. These porous rocks provide habitats for a plethora of new heat-loving microbes, many which are new to science. Using a combination of genomic, ecological and microbiological approaches, we studied deep-sea vent microbes from an area in the southwestern Pacific called the Eastern Lau Spreading Center. These vent fields provide excellent natural laboratories for exploring the factors that influence the diversity and relationships of microbial communities associated with actively forming deep-sea hydrothermal deposits. From samples collected in 2015, we were able to reconstruct over 2000 (>500 high quality genomes) genomes of Bacteria and Archaea, many which we have no representatives in culture. Using these genomes, we were also able to grow numerous new organisms from these vents, and have new targets of possible unusual metabolisms. Furthermore, we uncovered new phyla that have never been detected at deep-sea vents, pointing to how little we understand of these poorly studied environments on Earth. These new genome discoveries of many novel branches on the Tree of Life, not only expand our understanding of biodiversity on Earth but also could have potential biotechnological applications. Last Modified: 03/12/2018 Submitted by: Anna-Louise Reysenbach