Project description:Enrichments with labeled CH4 and NO2 were conducted to test microbial community correlations and constrain potential metabolic interactions between methanotrophs and other one-carbon utilizing microorganisms under low O2 conditions
Project description:Microbial biofertilizers were investigated for their ability to mitigate drought stress and enhance resilience in Andrographis paniculata. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis revealed that microbial biofertilizer significantly increased andrographolide content, a key bioactive compound, even under drought stress.
Project description:Managing tradeoffs through gene regulation is believed to maintain resilience of a microbial community in a fluctuating resource environment. To investigate this hypothesis we imposed a fluctuating environment that required the sulfate-reducing generalist Desulfovibrio vulgaris to manage tradeoffs associated with repeated ecologically-relevant shifts between retaining metabolic independence (active capacity for sulfate respiration) and becoming metabolically specialized to a mutualistic association with the hydrogen consuming Methanococcus maripaludis. Strikingly, the microbial community became progressively less proficient at restoring the environmentally-relevant physiological state after each perturbation. Most cultures collapsed within 3-7 shifts with only a few collapsing later. We demonstrate that the collapse was caused by conditional gene regulation, which drove precipitous decline in intracellular abundance of essential transcripts and proteins, imposing greater energetic burden of regulation to restore function in a fluctuating environment. The microbial community collapse was rescued by a single regulatory mutation that could then potentially serve as a stepping stone for further adaptive evolution in a variable resource environment. Co-culture strains of M. maripaludis wild type and either wild type or DVU0744::Tn5 mutant of D. vulgaris strains were grown anaerobically in replicates. Samples were transitioned between syntrophic and sulfate respiratory growth conditions at early log phases.
Project description:Despite the global importance of forests, it is virtually unknown how their soil microbial communities adapt at the phylogenetic and functional level to long term metal pollution. Studying twelve sites located along two distinct gradients of metal pollution in Southern Poland revealed that both community composition (via MiSeq Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA genes) and functional gene potential (using GeoChip 4.2) were highly similar across the gradients despite drastically diverging metal contamination levels. Metal pollution level significantly impacted microbial community structure (p = 0.037), but not bacterial taxon richness. Metal pollution altered the relative abundance of specific bacterial taxa, including Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Firmicutes, Planctomycetes and Proteobacteria. Also, a group of metal resistance genes showed significant correlations with metal concentrations in soil, although no clear impact of metal pollution levels on overall functional diversity and structure of microbial communities was observed. While screens of phylogenetic marker genes, such as 16S rRNA, provided only limited insight into resilience mechanisms, analysis of specific functional genes, e.g. involved in metal resistance, appeared to be a more promising strategy. This study showed that the effect of metal pollution on soil microbial communities was not straightforward, but could be filtered out from natural variation and habitat factors by multivariate statistical analysis and spatial sampling involving separate pollution gradients.
Project description:Analysis of transcript abundance estimates as a function of child soldier status, PTSD symptoms, and psychological resilience. Gene expression profiling was conducted on dried blood spot (DBS) samples collected from community dwelling adolescents and young adults in Nepal. Approximatley half of the sample were former child soldiers in the Nepal People's War and the other half were demographically similiar civilian non-combatants. In addition to basic demographic characteristics (age, sex, ethnic minority status, social caste status, education level), participants were also assessed on syptoms of post-traumatic stress (PTS, assessed by a culturally adapted version of The Child PTSD Symptom Scale; Kohrt BA, et al. (2011) Validation of cross-cultural child mental health and psychosocial research instruments: adapting the Depression Self-Rating Scale and Child PTSD Symptom Scale in Nepal. BMC Psychiatry 11(1):e127, with higher values indicating greater PTSD symptoms) and psychological resilience (assessed by a culturally adapted version of the Resilience Scale; Wagnild GM & Young HM (1993) Development and psychometric evaluation of the Resilience Scale. Journal of Nursing Measurement, with higher values indicating greater resilience). Dichotomous variables were coded 0=no/absent and 1=yes/present. Valid gene expression data are available for 254 samples.
Project description:Managing tradeoffs through gene regulation is believed to maintain resilience of a microbial community in a fluctuating resource environment. To investigate this hypothesis we imposed a fluctuating environment that required the sulfate-reducing generalist Desulfovibrio vulgaris to manage tradeoffs associated with repeated ecologically-relevant shifts between retaining metabolic independence (active capacity for sulfate respiration) and becoming metabolically specialized to a mutualistic association with the hydrogen consuming Methanococcus maripaludis. Strikingly, the microbial community became progressively less proficient at restoring the environmentally-relevant physiological state after each perturbation. Most cultures collapsed within 3-7 shifts with only a few collapsing later. We demonstrate that the collapse was caused by conditional gene regulation, which drove precipitous decline in intracellular abundance of essential transcripts and proteins, imposing greater energetic burden of regulation to restore function in a fluctuating environment. The microbial community collapse was rescued by a single regulatory mutation that could then potentially serve as a stepping stone for further adaptive evolution in a variable resource environment.
Project description:Despite the global importance of forests, it is virtually unknown how their soil microbial communities adapt at the phylogenetic and functional level to long term metal pollution. Studying twelve sites located along two distinct gradients of metal pollution in Southern Poland revealed that both community composition (via MiSeq Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA genes) and functional gene potential (using GeoChip 4.2) were highly similar across the gradients despite drastically diverging metal contamination levels. Metal pollution level significantly impacted microbial community structure (p = 0.037), but not bacterial taxon richness. Metal pollution altered the relative abundance of specific bacterial taxa, including Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Firmicutes, Planctomycetes and Proteobacteria. Also, a group of metal resistance genes showed significant correlations with metal concentrations in soil, although no clear impact of metal pollution levels on overall functional diversity and structure of microbial communities was observed. While screens of phylogenetic marker genes, such as 16S rRNA, provided only limited insight into resilience mechanisms, analysis of specific functional genes, e.g. involved in metal resistance, appeared to be a more promising strategy. This study showed that the effect of metal pollution on soil microbial communities was not straightforward, but could be filtered out from natural variation and habitat factors by multivariate statistical analysis and spatial sampling involving separate pollution gradients. 12 samples were collected from two long-term polluted areas (Olkusz and Miasteczko M-EM-^ZlM-DM-^Eskie) in Southern Poland. In the study presented here, a consecutively operated, well-defined cohort of 50 NSCLC cases, followed up more than five years, was used to acquire expression profiles of a total of 8,644 unique genes, leading to the successful construction of supervised
Project description:This study investigates the role of carbon-to-phosphorus (C/P) ratios in shaping microbial community dynamics and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) production in sequencing batch reactors (SBR) fed with volatile fatty acids. Three conditions, characterized by fixed organic loading rates but varying C/P ratios (Run 1 = 170 Cmol Pmol-1; Run 2 = 235 Cmol Pmol-1; Run 3 = 400 Cmol Pmol-1;), were tested to explore their impact on PHA accumulation, biomass growth, and reactor stability. Results indicate that the moderate phosphorus limitation of Run 2 achieves the best overall performance, with a PHA volumetric productivity of 2.02 g PHA L⁻¹ d⁻¹ and process stability. Under these conditions, PHA-accumulating bacteria, primarily Sphaerotilus and Leadbetterella, dominated the microbial community, with a notable contribution from eukaryotic organisms, particularly Rhogostoma, Vorticella and Tokophrya, which appeared to regulate bacterial populations through selective predation. Conversely, higher C/P ratio increased the storage yield but lowered the productivity (1.55 gPHA L-1 h-1), compromising sludge settleability and reactor stability, indicating impaired microbial functionality. Transmission electron microscopy further confirmed the presence of intracellular PHA granules and polyphosphate reserves, reinforcing the connection between nutrient limitation and adaptive microbial strategies. Overall, these findings highlight the critical role of the C/P ratio in shaping the performance of mixed microbial cultures, demonstrating that a well-balanced nutrient supply can enhance PHA production while maintaining microbial community stability. The results contribute to optimizing the selection process for mixed microbial cultures, offering valuable insights into the impact of carbon-to-nutrient ratios in the feeding strategy.