Diversity, physiology, and niche differentiation of ammonia-oxidizing archaea.

ABSTRACT: Nitrification, the aerobic oxidation of ammonia to nitrate via nitrite, has been suggested to have been a central part of the global biogeochemical nitrogen cycle since the oxygenation of Earth. The cultivation of several ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) as well as the discovery that archaeal ammonia monooxygenase (amo)-like gene sequences are nearly ubiquitously distributed in the environment and outnumber their bacterial counterparts in many habitats fundamentally revised our understanding of nitrification. Surprising insights into the physiological distinctiveness of AOA are mirrored by the recognition of the phylogenetic uniqueness of these microbes, which fall within a novel archaeal phylum now known as Thaumarchaeota. The relative importance of AOA in nitrification, compared to ammoni

SUBMITTER: Hatzenpichler R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3485721 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature