Project description:Starch is an essential factor affecting the quality of flue-cured tobacco, and high starch content can affect the sensory quality and safety. Recently, the degradation of macromolecules in tobacco raw materials by using additional microorganisms to improve their intrinsic quality and safety has become a new research hotspot in the tobacco industry. However, the technical maturity and application scale are limited. Our study analyzed the correlation between microbial community composition and volatile components on the surface of tobacco leaves from 14 different grades in Fujian tobacco-producing areas. The PICRUSt software was utilized to predict the function of the microbial community present in tobacco leaves. Furthermore, dominant strains that produced amylase were screened out, and an enzyme solution was prepared to enhance the flue-cured tobacco flavor. Changes in the content of macromolecules and volatile components were determined, and sensory evaluations were conducted to assess the overall quality of the tobacco leaves. The results showed that the dominant bacterial genera on the surface of Fujian tobacco leaves were Variovorax, Sphingomonas, Bacillus, etc. Bacillus was positively correlated with various volatile components, which contributed to the sweet and aromatic flavors of Fujian flue-cured tobacco. The main genetic functions of Fujian flue-cured tobacco surface bacteria were carbohydrate metabolism and amino acid metabolism. After treating flue-cured tobacco with an enzyme preparation prepared by the fermentation of Paenibacillus amylolyticus A17 #, the content of starch, pectin, and cellulose in flue-cured tobacco decreased significantly compared with the control group. Meanwhile, the content of total soluble sugar and reducing sugar was significantly increased, and the volatile aroma components, such as 3-hydroxy--damascone, 2,3-dihydro-3,5-dihydroxy-6-methyl-4 H-Pyran-4-one, ethyl palmitate, ethyl linolenic acid, etc., were significantly increased. The aroma quality and quantity of flue-cured tobacco were enhanced, while impurities were reduced. The smoke characteristics were improved, with increased fineness, concentration, and moderate strength. The taste characteristics were also improved, with reduced irritation and a better aftertaste. In conclusion, Bacillus, as the dominant genus in the abundance of bacterial communities on tobacco surfaces in Fujian, had an essential impact on the flavor of tobacco leaves by participating in carbohydrate metabolism and finally forming the unique flavor style of flue-cured tobacco in Fujian tobacco-producing areas. Paenibacillus amylolyticus A17 #, a target strain with amylase-producing ability, was screened from the surface of Fujian flue-cured tobacco. The enzyme preparation, produced by the fermentation of Paenibacillus amylolyticus A17 #, was utilized to reduce the content of macromolecules, increase the content of water-soluble total sugar and reducing sugar, and produce a variety of crucial volatile aroma components, which had a significant improvement on the quality of tobacco leaves.
Project description:Marine hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria perform a fundamental role in the biodegradation of crude oil and its petrochemical derivatives in coastal and open ocean environments. However, there is a paucity of knowledge on the diversity and function of these organisms in deep-sea sediment. Here we used stable-isotope probing (SIP), a valuable tool to link the phylogeny and function of targeted microbial groups, to investigate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-degrading bacteria under aerobic conditions in sediments from Guaymas Basin with uniformly labeled [(13)C]-phenanthrene (PHE). The dominant sequences in clone libraries constructed from (13)C-enriched bacterial DNA (from PHE enrichments) were identified to belong to the genus Cycloclasticus. We used quantitative PCR primers targeting the 16S rRNA gene of the SIP-identified Cycloclasticus to determine their abundance in sediment incubations amended with unlabeled PHE and showed substantial increases in gene abundance during the experiments. We also isolated a strain, BG-2, representing the SIP-identified Cycloclasticus sequence (99.9% 16S rRNA gene sequence identity), and used this strain to provide direct evidence of PHE degradation and mineralization. In addition, we isolated Halomonas, Thalassospira, and Lutibacterium sp. with demonstrable PHE-degrading capacity from Guaymas Basin sediment. This study demonstrates the value of coupling SIP with cultivation methods to identify and expand on the known diversity of PAH-degrading bacteria in the deep-sea.
Project description:Tobacco smoking is positively correlated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)1-5, but the underlying mechanism for this association is unclear. Here we report that nicotine accumulates in the intestine during tobacco smoking and activates intestinal AMPKα. We identify the gut bacterium Bacteroides xylanisolvens as an effective nicotine degrader. Colonization of B. xylanisolvens reduces intestinal nicotine concentrations in nicotine-exposed mice, and it improves nicotine-exacerbated NAFLD progression. Mechanistically, AMPKα promotes the phosphorylation of sphingomyelin phosphodiesterase 3 (SMPD3), stabilizing the latter and therefore increasing intestinal ceramide formation, which contributes to NAFLD progression to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Our results establish a role for intestinal nicotine accumulation in NAFLD progression and reveal an endogenous bacterium in the human intestine with the ability to metabolize nicotine. These findings suggest a possible route to reduce tobacco smoking-exacerbated NAFLD progression.
Project description:Most soil bacteria belong to family-level phylogenetic groups with few or no known cultivated representatives. We cultured a collection of 350 isolates from soil by using simple solid media in petri dishes. These isolates were assigned to 60 family-level groupings in nine bacterial phyla on the basis of a comparative analysis of their 16S rRNA genes. Ninety-three (27%) of the isolates belonged to 20 as-yet-unnamed family-level groupings, many from poorly studied bacterial classes and phyla. They included members of subdivisions 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the phylum Acidobacteria, subdivision 3 of the phylum Verrucomicrobia, subdivision 1 of the phylum Gemmatimonadetes, and subclasses Acidimicrobidae and Rubrobacteridae of the phylum ACTINOBACTERIA: In addition, members of 10 new family-level groupings of subclass Actinobacteridae of the phylum Actinobacteria and classes Alphaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, and Gammaproteobacteria of the phylum Proteobacteria were obtained. The high degree of phylogenetic novelty and the number of isolates affiliated with so-called unculturable groups show that simple cultivation methods can still be developed further to obtain laboratory cultures of many phylogenetically novel soil bacteria.
Project description:In this study, a new diffusion bioreactor was developed to cultivate hidden bacterial communities in their natural environment. The newly developed method was investigated to cultivate microbial communities from the forest soil, and the results were evaluated against traditional culture methods and compared to the results of a pyrosequencing-based molecular survey. The molecular analysis revealed that a diverse bacterial population was present in the soil sample. However, both the newly developed method and the traditional method recovered more than 400 isolates, which belonged to only four phyla: Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes. Although these isolates were distributed over only four major phyla, the use of the newly developed technique resulted in the successful cultivation of 35 previously uncultured strains, whereas no such strains were successfully cultivated by the traditional method. Furthermore, the study also found that the recovery of uncultured bacteria and novel isolates was related to sampling season, incubation period, and cultivation media. The use of soil collected in summer, a prolonged incubation period, and low-substrate modified media increased the recovery of uncultured and novel isolates. Overall, the results indicate that the newly designed diffusion bioreactor can mimic the natural environment, which permits the cultivation of previously uncultured bacteria.
Project description:Nicotine is a major alkaloid in tobacco plants and an addictive component of tobacco products. Some bacteria grow on tobacco plants and have evolved the ability to metabolize nicotine. As part of our microbiology teaching lab, we used minimal media with nicotine as the sole carbon source to isolate nicotine-degrading bacteria from tobacco leaves and commercial tobacco products. Students then identified these bacteria using 16S rRNA sequencing and biochemical assays and assessed their ability to catabolize nicotine using UV spectroscopy. Students were able to isolate and identify 14 distinct genera that can metabolize nicotine. This modification of the commonly used unknown project gave students firsthand experience using selective media, and students got the opportunity to work with largely uncharacterized microbes with a real-world connection to public health, which increased student engagement. Students had the opportunity to think critically about why nicotine-degrading microorganisms associate with tobacco plants, why there are different bacteria that use the same specialized metabolism, and how these organisms are isolated from other bacteria using selective media.
Project description:Traditional microbiological methods of cultivation recover less than 1% of the total bacterial species, and the culturable portion of bacteria is not representative of the total phylogenetic diversity. Classical cultivation strategies are now known to supply excessive nutrients to a system and therefore select for fast-growing bacteria that are capable of colony or biofilm formation. New approaches to the cultivation of bacteria which rely on growth in dilute nutrient media or simulated environments are beginning to address this problem of selection. Here we describe a novel microcultivation method for soil bacteria that mimics natural conditions. Our soil slurry membrane system combines a polycarbonate membrane as a growth support and soil extract as the substrate. The result is abundant growth of uncharacterized bacteria as microcolonies. By combining microcultivation with fluorescent in situ hybridization, previously "unculturable" organisms belonging to cultivated and noncultivated divisions, including candidate division TM7, can be identified by fluorescence microscopy. Successful growth of soil bacteria as microcolonies confirmed that the missing culturable majority may have a growth strategy that is not observed when traditional cultivation indicators are used.
Project description:Rotational shifting cultivation (RSC) in Northern Thailand serves the dual purpose of ensuring food security and meeting economic goals through maize cultivation. However, the research question remains: Does the dynamics of soil bacterial communities differ between maize monoculture and RSC fields with continuous fallow throughout the season? Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate and compare the variation of soil bacterial communities in maize monoculture and fallow RSC fields. A continuous 5-year fallow field (undisturbed soil; CF-5Y) and a continuous 5-year maize cultivation field (M-5Y) in Mae Chaem District, Chiang Mai Province, Northern Thailand, were selected due to their similarities in microclimate, topography, and the 5-year duration of different field activities. Over the span of a year, we collected soil samples from the surface layer (0-2 cm depth) at both sites. These collections occurred at 3-month intervals, starting from March 2022 (summer season) and followed by June (rainy season), September (rainy season), December (winter season), and March 2023 (summer season). Soil bacterial diversity and composition were analyzed using 16S rRNA gene-based metagenomic analysis. The results found that undisturbed soil over a 5-year period exhibited more stability in the richness and diversity of bacteria across seasons compared with M-5Y. Notably, fertilizer application and tillage practices in M-5Y can enhance both the diversity and richness of soil bacteria. In terms of bacterial abundance, Proteobacteria prevailed in CF-5Y, while Actinobacteria dominated in M-5Y. At the genus level, Candidatus Udaeobacter dominated during the summer and winter seasons in both CF-5Y and M-5Y sites. Interestingly, during the rainy season, the dominant genus shifted to Bacillus in both CF-5Y and M-5Y fields. The soil bacterial community in M-5Y was strongly influenced by organic matter (OM) and organic carbon (OC). In contrast, in CF-5Y, there was no correlation between soil properties and the soil bacterial community, likely due to the lower variation in soil properties across seasons. β-Glucosidase was the dominant enzyme in both CF-5Y and M-5Y sites, and it showed a positive correlation with OM and OC. Further studies should continue to investigate soil bacteria dynamics, considering the changes in land management practices.
Project description:To improve tobacco leaf quality, excessive K2SO4 fertilizers were applied to soils in major tobacco-planting areas in China. However, the effects of K2SO4 application on soil microbial community and functions are still unclear. An eight-year field experiment with three kinds of K2SO4 amounts (low amount, K2O 82.57 kg hm-2, LK; moderate amount, K2O 165.07 kg hm-2, MK; high amount, K2O 247.58 kg hm-2, HK) was established to assess the effects of K2SO4 application on the chemical and bacterial characteristics of tobacco-planting soil using 16S rRNA gene and metagenomic sequencing approaches. Results showed that HK led to lower pH and higher nitrogen (N), potassium (K), sulfur(S) and organic matter contents of the soil than LK. The bacterial community composition of HK was significantly different from those of MK and LK, while these of MK and LK were similar. Compared to LK, HK increased the relative abundance of predicted copiotrophic groups (e.g. Burkholderiaceae, Rhodospirillaceae families and Ellin6067 genus) and potentially beneficial bacteria (e.g. Gemmatimonadetes phylum and Bacillus genus) associated with pathogens and heavy metal resistance, N fixation, dissolution of phosphorus and K. While some oligotrophic taxa (e.g. Acidobacteria phylum) related to carbon, N metabolism exhibited adverse responses to HK. Metagenomic analysis suggested that the improvement of pathways related to carbohydrate metabolism and genetic information processing by HK might be the self-protection mechanism of microorganisms against environmental stress. Besides, the redundancy analysis and variation partitioning analysis showed that soil pH, available K and S were the primary soil factors in shifting the bacterial community and KEGG pathways. This study provides a clear understanding of the responses of soil microbial communities and potential functions to excessive application of K2SO4 in tobacco-planting soil.