ISME Journal

The soil ecosystem is critical for human health, affecting aspects of the environment from key agricultural and edaphic parameters to critical influence on climate change. Soil has more unknown biodiversity than any other ecosystem. We have applied diverse DNA extraction methods coupled with high throughput pyrosequencing to explore 4.88 × 109 bp of metagenomic sequence data from the longest continually studied soil environment (Park Grass experiment at Rothamsted Research in the UK). Results emphasize important DNA extraction biases and unexpectedly low seasonal and vertical soil metagenomic functional class variations. Clustering-based subsystems and carbohydrate metabolism had the largest quantity of annotated reads assigned although <50% of reads were assigned at an E value cutoff of 10−5. In addition, with the more detailed subsystems, cAMP signaling in bacteria (3.24±0.27% of the annotated reads) and the Ton and Tol transport systems (1.69±0.11%) were relatively highly represented. The most highly represented genome from the database was that for a Bradyrhizobium species. The metagenomic variance created by integrating natural and methodological fluctuations represents a global picture of the Rothamsted soil metagenome that can be used for specific questions and future inter-environmental metagenomic comparisons. However, only 1% of annotated sequences correspond to already sequenced genomes at 96% similarity and E values of <10−5, thus, considerable genomic reconstructions efforts still have to be performed.

Ralstonia solanacearum là một loại vi khuẩn gây bệnh thực vật tồn tại trong đất trên toàn thế giới, có phạm vi sinh thái rộng rãi với nhiều loại nấm liên quan đến thực vật và đất. Chúng tôi đã tìm cách xác định liệu các giao tiếp hóa học của R. solanacearum có điều khiển sự phát triển đối ứng của các cộng đồng đa vi sinh vật hay không. R. solanacearum đã sản xuất ra một hợp chất khuếch tán kích thích sự phân loại hình thái bảo tồn ở 34 loài nấm, thuộc ba ngành đa dạng (Ascomycetes, Basidiomycetes và Zygomycetes). Các loài nấm tiếp xúc với hợp chất này đã hình thành bào tử chlamydospore, những cấu trúc sinh tồn với thành tế bào dày. Một số bào tử chlamydospore có chứa R. solanacearum, chỉ ra một phong cách sống nội nấm mới mô tả cho tác nhân gây bệnh thực vật quan trọng này. Sử dụng kỹ thuật khối phổ hình ảnh và peptidogenomics, chúng tôi đã xác định được một lipopeptit chưa được mô tả trước đây là ralsolamycin, được sản xuất bởi một tổ hợp enzym không-ribosome polyketide synthetase của R. solanacearum. Sự bất hoạt của gen tổng hợp peptides và polyketide không qua ribosome kết hợp, rmyA, đã hủy bỏ sự tổng hợp ralsolamycin. Các đột biến R. solanacearum thiếu ralsolamycin không còn kích thích sự phát triển của chlamydospore trong cộng đồng nuôi cấy cùng với nấm và xâm nhập ít hơn vào các sợi nấm so với loại hoang dã. Chúng tôi đề xuất rằng ralsolamycin đóng góp vào sự xâm nhập của sợi nấm và sự hình thành bào tử chlamydospore có thể cung cấp không chỉ một vị trí thích hợp cho việc xâm chiếm vi khuẩn mà còn cải thiện khả năng sống sót cho nấm cộng sinh.

Đất được thu thập qua một thí nghiệm đã bón vôi lâu dài (pH 4.0–8.3), trong đó sự biến đổi của các yếu tố khác ngoài pH đã được giảm thiểu, được sử dụng để khảo sát ảnh hưởng trực tiếp của pH lên sự phong phú và thành phần của hai nhóm chính trong vi sinh vật đất: nấm và vi khuẩn. Chúng tôi giả thuyết rằng các cộng đồng vi khuẩn sẽ bị ảnh hưởng mạnh bởi pH hơn là các cộng đồng nấm. Để xác định tỷ lệ phong phú tương đối của vi khuẩn và nấm, chúng tôi đã sử dụng PCR định lượng (qPCR), và để phân tích thành phần và đa dạng của các cộng đồng vi khuẩn và nấm, chúng tôi đã sử dụng kỹ thuật tuần tự song song có mã vạch. Cả tỷ lệ phong phú tương đối và đa dạng của vi khuẩn đều có quan hệ dương với pH, trong đó tỷ lệ phong phú gần như tăng gấp đôi giữa pH 4 và 8. Trái lại, tỷ lệ phong phú tương đối của nấm không bị ảnh hưởng bởi pH và độ đa dạng của nấm chỉ có liên hệ yếu với pH. Thành phần của các cộng đồng vi khuẩn được xác định chặt chẽ bởi pH của đất; có sự biến đổi thành phần cộng đồng vi khuẩn dọc theo khoảng cách 180 mét của thí nghiệm này cũng như so với đất thu thập từ nhiều biôma khác nhau ở Bắc và Nam Mỹ, nhấn mạnh sự chi phối của pH trong việc cấu trúc các cộng đồng vi khuẩn. Ảnh hưởng trực tiếp rõ ràng của pH lên thành phần của cộng đồng vi khuẩn có lẽ do phạm vi pH hẹp cho sự phát triển tối ưu của vi khuẩn. Thành phần cộng đồng nấm ít bị ảnh hưởng bởi pH hơn, điều này phù hợp với các nghiên cứu văn hóa thuần túy, cho thấy nấm thường có các phạm vi pH rộng hơn cho sự phát triển tối ưu.

Corrosion is the result of a series of chemical, physical and (micro) biological processes leading to the deterioration of materials such as steel and stone. It is a world-wide problem with great societal and economic consequences. Current corrosion control strategies based on chemically produced products are under increasing pressure of stringent environmental regulations. Furthermore, they are rather inefficient. Therefore, there is an urgent need for environmentally friendly and sustainable corrosion control strategies. The mechanisms of microbially influenced corrosion and microbially influenced corrosion inhibition are not completely understood, because they cannot be linked to a single biochemical reaction or specific microbial species or groups. Corrosion is influenced by the complex processes of different microorganisms performing different electrochemical reactions and secreting proteins and metabolites that can have secondary effects. Information on the identity and role of microbial communities that are related to corrosion and corrosion inhibition in different materials and in different environments is scarce. As some microorganisms are able to both cause and inhibit corrosion, we pay particular interest to their potential role as corrosion-controlling agents. We show interesting interfaces in which scientists from different disciplines such as microbiology, engineering and art conservation can collaborate to find solutions to the problems caused by corrosion.

A major goal of microbial community ecology is to understand the forces that structure community composition. Deterministic selection by specific environmental factors is sometimes important, but in other cases stochastic or ecologically neutral processes dominate. Lacking is a unified conceptual framework aiming to understand why deterministic processes dominate in some contexts but not others. Here we work toward such a framework. By testing predictions derived from general ecological theory we aim to uncover factors that govern the relative influences of deterministic and stochastic processes. We couple spatiotemporal data on subsurface microbial communities and environmental parameters with metrics and null models of within and between community phylogenetic composition. Testing for phylogenetic signal in organismal niches showed that more closely related taxa have more similar habitat associations. Community phylogenetic analyses further showed that ecologically similar taxa coexist to a greater degree than expected by chance. Environmental filtering thus deterministically governs subsurface microbial community composition. More importantly, the influence of deterministic environmental filtering relative to stochastic factors was maximized at both ends of an environmental variation gradient. A stronger role of stochastic factors was, however, supported through analyses of phylogenetic temporal turnover. Although phylogenetic turnover was on average faster than expected, most pairwise comparisons were not themselves significantly non-random. The relative influence of deterministic environmental filtering over community dynamics was elevated, however, in the most temporally and spatially variable environments. Our results point to general rules governing the relative influences of stochastic and deterministic processes across micro- and macro-organisms.

Microbial activities that affect global oceanographic and atmospheric processes happen throughout the water column, yet the long-term ecological dynamics of microbes have been studied largely in the euphotic zone and adjacent seasonally mixed depths. We investigated temporal patterns in the community structure of free-living bacteria, by sampling approximately monthly from 5 m, the deep chlorophyll maximum (∼15–40 m), 150, 500 and 890 m, in San Pedro Channel (maximum depth 900 m, hypoxic below ∼500 m), off the coast of Southern California. Community structure and biodiversity (inverse Simpson index) showed seasonal patterns near the surface and bottom of the water column, but not at intermediate depths. Inverse Simpson’s index was highest in the winter in surface waters and in the spring at 890 m, and varied interannually at all depths. Biodiversity appeared to be driven partially by exchange of microbes between depths and was highest when communities were changing slowly over time. Meanwhile, communities from the surface through 500 m varied interannually. After accounting for seasonality, several environmental parameters co-varied with community structure at the surface and 890 m, but not at the intermediate depths. Abundant and seasonally variable groups included, at 890 m, Nitrospina, Flavobacteria and Marine Group A. Seasonality at 890 m is likely driven by variability in sinking particles, which originate in surface waters, pass transiently through the middle water column and accumulate on the seafloor where they alter the chemical environment. Seasonal subeuphotic groups are likely those whose ecology is strongly influenced by these particles. This surface-to-bottom, decade-long, study identifies seasonality and interannual variability not only of overall community structure, but also of numerous taxonomic groups and near-species level operational taxonomic units.

Bacteroidetes are commonly assumed to be specialized in degrading high molecular weight (HMW) compounds and to have a preference for growth attached to particles, surfaces or algal cells. The first sequenced genomes of marine Bacteroidetes seemed to confirm this assumption. Many more genomes have been sequenced recently. Here, a comparative analysis of marine Bacteroidetes genomes revealed a life strategy different from those of other important phyla of marine bacterioplankton such as Cyanobacteria and Proteobacteria. Bacteroidetes have many adaptations to grow attached to particles, have the capacity to degrade polymers, including a large number of peptidases, glycoside hydrolases (GHs), glycosyl transferases, adhesion proteins, as well as the genes for gliding motility. Several of the polymer degradation genes are located in close association with genes for TonB-dependent receptors and transducers, suggesting an integrated regulation of adhesion and degradation of polymers. This confirmed the role of this abundant group of marine bacteria as degraders of particulate matter. Marine Bacteroidetes had a significantly larger number of proteases than GHs, while non-marine Bacteroidetes had equal numbers of both. Proteorhodopsin containing Bacteroidetes shared two characteristics: small genome size and a higher number of genes involved in CO2 fixation per Mb. The latter may be important in order to survive when floating freely in the illuminated, but nutrient-poor, ocean surface.

Marine Group A (MGA) is a deeply branching and uncultivated phylum of bacteria. Although their functional roles remain elusive, MGA subgroups are particularly abundant and diverse in oxygen minimum zones and permanent or seasonally stratified anoxic basins, suggesting metabolic adaptation to oxygen-deficiency. Here, we expand a previous survey of MGA diversity in O2-deficient waters of the Northeast subarctic Pacific Ocean (NESAP) to include Saanich Inlet (SI), an anoxic fjord with seasonal O2 gradients and periodic sulfide accumulation. Phylogenetic analysis of small subunit ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) gene clone libraries recovered five previously described MGA subgroups and defined three novel subgroups (SHBH1141, SHBH391, and SHAN400) in SI. To discern the functional properties of MGA residing along gradients of O2 in the NESAP and SI, we identified and sequenced to completion 14 fosmids harboring MGA-associated 16S RNA genes from a collection of 46 fosmid libraries sourced from NESAP and SI waters. Comparative analysis of these fosmids, in addition to four publicly available MGA-associated large-insert DNA fragments from Hawaii Ocean Time-series and Monterey Bay, revealed widespread genomic differentiation proximal to the ribosomal RNA operon that did not consistently reflect subgroup partitioning patterns observed in 16S rRNA gene clone libraries. Predicted protein-coding genes associated with adaptation to O2-deficiency and sulfur-based energy metabolism were detected on multiple fosmids, including polysulfide reductase (psrABC), implicated in dissimilatory polysulfide reduction to hydrogen sulfide and dissimilatory sulfur oxidation. These results posit a potential role for specific MGA subgroups in the marine sulfur cycle.

Nitrification, the microbial oxidation of ammonia to nitrate via nitrite, occurs in a wide range of acidic soils. However, the ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) that have been isolated from soil to date are acid-sensitive. Here we report the isolation and characterization of an acid-adapted AOB from an acidic agricultural soil. The isolated AOB, strain TAO100, is classified within the Gammaproteobacteria based on phylogenetic characteristics. TAO100 can grow in the pH range of 5–7.5 and survive in highly acidic conditions until pH 2 by forming cell aggregates. Whereas all known gammaproteobacterial AOB (γ-AOB) species, which have been isolated from marine and saline aquatic environments, are halophiles, TAO100 is not phenotypically halophilic. Thus, TAO100 represents the first soil-originated and non-halophilic γ-AOB. The TAO100 genome is considerably smaller than those of other γ-AOB and lacks several genes associated with salt tolerance which are unnecessary for survival in soil. The ammonia monooxygenase subunit A gene of TAO100 and its transcript are higher in abundance than those of ammonia-oxidizing archaea and betaproteobacterial AOB in the strongly acidic soil. These results indicate that TAO100 plays an important role in the nitrification of acidic soils. Based on these results, we propose TAO100 as a novel species of a new genus, Candidatus Nitrosoglobus terrae.

Fucosyltransferase 2 (FUT2) is an enzyme that is responsible for the synthesis of the H antigen in body fluids and on the intestinal mucosa. The H antigen is an oligosaccharide moiety that acts as both an attachment site and carbon source for intestinal bacteria. Non-secretors, who are homozygous for the loss-of-function alleles of FUT2 gene (sese), have increased susceptibility to Crohn’s disease (CD). To characterize the effect of FUT2 polymorphism on the mucosal ecosystem, we profiled the microbiome, meta-proteome and meta-metabolome of 75 endoscopic lavage samples from the cecum and sigmoid of 39 healthy subjects (12 SeSe, 18 Sese and 9 sese). Imputed metagenomic analysis revealed perturbations of energy metabolism in the microbiome of non-secretor and heterozygote individuals, notably the enrichment of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, cofactor and vitamin metabolism and glycan biosynthesis and metabolism-related pathways, and the depletion of amino-acid biosynthesis and metabolism. Similar changes were observed in mice bearing the FUT2−/− genotype. Metabolomic analysis of human specimens revealed concordant as well as novel changes in the levels of several metabolites. Human metaproteomic analysis indicated that these functional changes were accompanied by sub-clinical levels of inflammation in the local intestinal mucosa. Therefore, the colonic microbiota of non-secretors is altered at both the compositional and functional levels, affecting the host mucosal state and potentially explaining the association of FUT2 genotype and CD susceptibility.