Microbial autotrophy is widespread across soils and most prevalent in deep and saturated environments

Abstract

Genes for CO2 fixation occur in soil microorganisms, but little is known about the pathways that are most common across ecosystem types, the organisms with these genes, where different CO2 fixation pathways are most prevalent, and the energy sources that support autotrophy across ecosystems. Here, we investigated microbial capacity for autotrophy in soils using 853 metagenomes and 201 metatranscriptomes from a wide range of terrestrial ecosystems (agricultural soils, wetlands, weathering rock). Autotrophy-associated RuBisCO (Form I and II) is widely encoded across all soils and occurs in bacteria from numerous lineages (38 phyla). RuBisCO Form IE is consistently more phylogenetically diverse in soils than in marine ecosystems, suggesting that it may have evolved to function in soil-like environments. A newly discovered deeply branching Form I RuBisCO, Form I, supports the hypothesis that Form I RuBisCO originated in anaerobic environments. Further, saturated soils harbor more, and more distinct, autotrophic microbes, many of which may use the Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle or Wood-Ljungdahl pathway for CO2 fixation. Overall, the results indicate that autotrophy is a particularly important metabolism in deep, saturated soils and weathering rock.