Project description:Clipping (i.e., harvesting aboveground plant biomass) is common in agriculture and for bioenergy production. However, microbial responses to clipping in the context of climate warming are poorly understood. We investigated the interactive effects of grassland warming and clipping on soil properties, plant and microbial communities, in particular microbial functional genes. Clipping alone did not change the plant biomass production, but warming and clipping combined increased the C4 peak biomass by 47% and belowground net primary production by 110%. Clipping alone and in combination with warming decreased the soil carbon input from litter by 81% and 75%, respectively. With less carbon input, the abundances of genes involved in degrading relatively recalcitrant carbon increased by 38-137% in response to either clipping or the combined treatment, which could weaken the long-term soil carbon stability and trigger a positive feedback to warming. Clipping alone also increased the abundance of genes for nitrogen fixation, mineralization and denitrification by 32-39%. The potentially stimulated nitrogen fixation could help compensate for the 20% decline in soil ammonium caused by clipping alone, and contribute to unchanged plant biomass. Moreover, clipping tended to interact antagonistically with warming, especially on nitrogen cycling genes, demonstrating that single factor studies cannot predict multifactorial changes. These results revealed that clipping alone or in combination with warming altered soil and plant properties, as well as the abundance and structure of soil microbial functional genes. The aboveground biomass removal for biofuel production needs to be re-considered as the long-term soil carbon stability may be weakened.
Project description:We study the effect of nitrogen limitation on the growth and development of poplar roots. We used microarrays to detail the global program of gene expression underlying morphological and developmental changes driven by low nitrogen in the growth media. We report the effect of nitrogen limitation on the growth and development of poplar roots. Low nitrogen concentration led to increased root elongation followed by lateral root proliferation and finally increased root biomass. These morphological responses correlated with high and specific activation of genes encoding regulators of cell cycle and enzymes involved in cell wall biogenesis, growth and remodeling. Comparative analysis of poplar and Arabidopsis root transcriptomes under nitrogen deficiency indicated many similarities and diversification in the response in the two species. A reconstruction of genetic regulatory network (GRN) analysis revealed a sub-network centered on a PtaNAC1-like transcription factor. Consistent with the GRN predictions, root-specific upregulation of PtaNAC1 in transgenic poplar plants increased root biomass and led to significant changes in the expression of the connected genes specifically under low nitrogen. PtaNAC1 and its regulatory miR164 showed inverse expression profiles during response to LN, suggesting of a micro RNA mediated attenuation of PtaNAC1 transcript abundance in response to nitrogen deprivation.
Project description:Nitrogen and arsenic contaminants often coexist in groundwater, and microbes show the potential for simultaneous removal of nitrogen and arsenic. Here, we reported that Hydrogenophaga sp. H7 was heterotrophic nitrification and aerobic denitrification (HNAD) and arsenite [As(III)] oxidation bacterium. Strain H7 presented efficient capacities for simultaneous NH4+-N, NO3--N, or NO2--N removal with As(III) oxidation during aerobic cultivation. Strikingly, the bacterial ability to remove nitrogen and oxidize As(III) has remained high across a wide range of temperatures, pH values, and shaking speeds, exceeding that of the most commonly reported HNAD bacteria. Additionally, the previous HNAD strains exhibited a high denitrification efficiency, but a suboptimal concentration of nitrogen remained in the wastewater. Here, strain H7 combined with FeCl3 efficiently removed 96.14% of NH4+-N, 99.08% of NO3--N, and 94.68% of total nitrogen (TN), and it oxidized 100% of As(III), even at a low nitrogen concentration (35 mg/L). The residues in the wastewater still met the Surface Water Environmental Quality Standard of China after five continuous wastewater treatment cycles. Furthermore, genome and proteomic analyses led us to propose that the shortcut nitrification-denitrification pathway and As(III) oxidase AioBA are the key pathways that participate in simultaneous nitrogen removal and As(III) oxidation.
Project description:<p><strong>INTRODUCTION:</strong> The extraction solvent mixtures were optimized for untargeted metabolomics analysis of microbial communities from two laboratory scale activated sludge reactors performing enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR).</p><p><strong>OBJECTIVE:</strong> To develop a robust and simple analytical protocol to analyse microbial metabolomics from EBPR bioreactors.</p><p><strong>METHODS:</strong> Extra- and intra-cellular metabolites were extracted using five methods and analysed by ultraperformance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS).</p><p><strong>RESULTS:</strong> The optimal extraction method was biomass specific and methanol:water (1:1 v/v) and methanol:chloroform:water (2:2:1 v/v) were chosen, respectively, for each of the two different bioreactors.</p><p><strong>CONCLUSION:</strong> Our approach provides direct surveys of the metabolic state of PAO-enriched EBPR communities, showing that extraction methods should be carefully tailored to the microbial community under study</p>
Project description:Nitrogen (N) is an abundant and essential macronutrient for plants growth and development processes, especially for the huge banana trees with high biomass. In this paper, we studied the response of banana resists to low N stress ueing Illumina RNA-Seq technology, and analyzed the DEGs associated with the absorption, transport, and ulitilize of nitrogen.
Project description:Microarray analysis of Aspergillus niger under conditions with differing combinations of carbon source, nitrogen source, nitrogen concentration, and culture pH Fermentor cultures were grown in minimal medium (MM) at a constant temperature of 30 ± 0.5 ºC and with differing combinations of carbon source (either 277.5 mM glucose or 333.0 mM xylose), nitrogen source (NH4Cl or NaNO3) and nitrogen concentration (4x: 282.4 mM; 8x: 564.8 mM), and pH (pH4 or pH5) of the medium (M. Braaksma, A.K. Smilde, M.J. van der Werf, P.J. Punt, submitted for publication). At different time points samples were collected, quenched immediately in methanol at -45 ºC and centrifuged at -20 ºC to remove supernatant. Part of the biomass was frozen into liquid nitrogen and stored at -80 ºC for microarray analysis. For each of the 16 culture conditions one sample was selected for microarray analysis; samples were collected either around the time point carbon source depleted or a considerable time (~24 h) after carbon souce depletion. In addition some technical duplicates were included.
Project description:We study the effect of nitrogen limitation on the growth and development of poplar roots. We used microarrays to detail the global program of gene expression underlying morphological and developmental changes driven by low nitrogen in the growth media. We report the effect of nitrogen limitation on the growth and development of poplar roots. Low nitrogen concentration led to increased root elongation followed by lateral root proliferation and finally increased root biomass. These morphological responses correlated with high and specific activation of genes encoding regulators of cell cycle and enzymes involved in cell wall biogenesis, growth and remodeling. Comparative analysis of poplar and Arabidopsis root transcriptomes under nitrogen deficiency indicated many similarities and diversification in the response in the two species. A reconstruction of genetic regulatory network (GRN) analysis revealed a sub-network centered on a PtaNAC1-like transcription factor. Consistent with the GRN predictions, root-specific upregulation of PtaNAC1 in transgenic poplar plants increased root biomass and led to significant changes in the expression of the connected genes specifically under low nitrogen. PtaNAC1 and its regulatory miR164 showed inverse expression profiles during response to LN, suggesting of a micro RNA mediated attenuation of PtaNAC1 transcript abundance in response to nitrogen deprivation. Poplar roots from low nitrogen treated and untreated from in vitro condition was selected for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. Roots were sampled at 6, 12, 24, 48, 96 and 504h after transfer to control and low nitrogen media and RNA was extacted.