Fig. 3: The abundance of DMSP catabolic genes in Challenger Deep water samples.

a The relative abundance of bacterial cells containing the DMSP demethylation gene dmdA at different depths (left), with the top nine affiliated orders containing them shown in the heat map (right). Genera belonging to Gammaproteobacteria are labeled in pink; those in black font are Alphaproteobacteria or Actinobacteria. b Absolute abundance of dmdA in the seawater and sediment at various depths, as determined by qPCR. c The relative abundance of bacterial cells containing DMSP cleavage genes at different depths (left) with the top four affiliated genera of each gene shown in the heat map (right). Genera belonging to Gammaproteobacteria are labeled in pink; those in black font are Alphaproteobacteria. FL: free-living; PA: particle-associated.