Table 1.
Subglacial Lake Whillans sediment samples used in this study, gene amplifications, sulfate reduction rates (SRR), and quantitative-PCR gene quantification.
| Sample |
Gene |
Sulfate Reduction Rates (SRR; pmol cm-3 d-1)b |
Gene quantification (copies g-1 wet sediment) |
||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core | Depth (cm) | aprA (384 bp) | dsrAB (1.9 kb) | dsrA (221 bp) |
rdsrABa (1.9 kb) |
Without formate | With formate | Bacterial 16S rRNA | Archaeal 16S rRNA | aprA | % aprA of 16S rRNAc |
| MC-2B | 0–4 | + | - | + | + | 0.42** | 0.41** | 3.9 × 106 | 2.4 × 106 | 9.12 × 105 | 14.5/23.6 |
| MC-2B | 4–8 | + | - | + | - | ND | ND | 2.6 × 104 | 5.8 × 105 | 9.60 × 103 | 1.6/36.6 |
| MC-2B | 28–34 | + | + | + | - | ND | ND | 1.2 × 105 | 1.4 × 106 | 8.42 × 103 | 0.6/7.3 |
| MC-3C | 2–3.5 | + | - | + | + | 1.67* | 1.29* | 8.5 × 106 | 4.4 × 106 | 9.58 × 105 | 7.4/11.3 |
| MC-3C | 3.5–8 | + | + | + | + | 1.20* | 1.84** | 2.2 × 105 | 9.0 × 105 | 2.47 × 104 | 2.2/11.1 |
| MC-3C | 8–16 | + | + | + | - | ND | ND | 2.0 × 104 | 4.0 × 105 | 3.67 × 103 | 0.9/18 |
Gene amplifications from SLW sediments: “+” indicates positive amplification. “-” indicates no amplification.
aAt least one of the primer combinations amplified (Table 2).
bp value calculated by one tailed unpaired t-test, NS = not significant when compared with kills; * = significant (p < 0.05); ** = highly significant (p < 0.01); The water column was NS. ND = Not Determined.
cFirst number is % aprA with respect to total prokaryote 16S rRNA gene copies and second is with respect to total bacterial 16S rRNA from Q-PCR quantification.