Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 2.
A schematic figure of the possible sources of archaeal 'Paleomes' that found in the
cold subseafloor sediments.
on the outside and inside of the dropstone with an eye to the question: Could
the community structures offer any insight into the environment from which the
dropstones were derived - that is, can the surviving DNA be used as a paleome
to reveal the history of the sample?
The rock (17 Kg) we examined was a sedimentary siltstone having a tex-
ture of horizontal layers [15]. The shape was sub-angular, indicating the rock
probably dropped from outcrop recently. Based on the analysis of associated di-
atoms, the dropstones in this area were estimated to be of Miocene to Pliocene
(5
20 Ma) in age [29]. Using a rock trimmer, subsamples were aseptically
obtained at depth intervals of 5 cm in a horizontal direction. Bulk DNA was
extracted from these four samples and analyzed for the presence of archaeal
∼
