Project description:Our goal is to convert methane efficiently into liquid fuels that may be more readily transported. Since aerobic oxidation of methane is less efficient, we focused on anaerobic processes to capture methane, which are accomplished by anaerobic methanotrophic archaea (ANME) in consortia. However, no pure culture capable of oxidizing and growing on methane anaerobically has been isolated. In this study, Methanosarcina acetivorans, an archaeal methanogen, was metabolically engineered to take up methane, rather than to generate it. To capture methane, we cloned the DNA coding for the enzyme methyl-coenzyme M reductase (Mcr) from an unculturable archaeal organism from a Black Sea mat into M. acetivorans to effectively run methanogenesis in reverse. The engineered strain produces primarily acetate, and our results demonstrate that pure cultures can grow anaerobically on methane.
2015-12-20 | GSE66445 | GEO
Project description:Anaerobic methane oxidation
| PRJNA557797 | ENA
Project description:Methane oxidation coupled to denitrification
| PRJNA482015 | ENA
Project description:Arsenate reduction coupled to anaerobic oxidation of methane by Methanoperedens
Project description:Nitric oxide (NO) has several important functions in biology and atmospheric chemistry as a toxin, signaling molecule, ozone depleting agent and the precursor of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). Even though NO is a potent oxidant, and was available on earth earlier than oxygen, its direct use by microorganisms for growth was not demonstrated before. Using physiological experiments, metatranscriptomics and metaproteomics, here we show that anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing (anammox) bacterium Kuenenia stuttgartiensis grow by coupling ammonium oxidation to NO reduction, and produce only N2. Such a metabolism could have existed on early earth, and has implications in controlling N2O and NO emissions both from natural and manmade ecosystems, where anammox bacteria contribute significantly to N2 release to the atmosphere.
Project description:Oxygen deficient zones (ODZs) are major sites of net natural oceanic nitrous oxide (N2O) production and emissions. In order to understand changes in the magnitude of N2O production in response to global change, knowledge on the individual contributions of the major microbial pathways (nitrification and denitrification) to N2O production and their regulation is needed. In the ODZ of the coastal area off Peru, the sensitivity of N2O production to oxygen and organic matter was investigated using 15N-tracer experiments in combination with qPCR and microarray analysis of total and active functional genes targeting archaeal amoA and nirS as marker genes for nitrification and denitrification, respectively. Denitrification was responsible for the highest N2O production with mean 8.7 nmol L-1 d-1 but up to 118 ± 27.8 nmol L-1 d-1 just below the oxic-anoxic interface. Highest N2O production from AO of 0.16 ± 0.003 nmol L-1 d-1 occurred in the upper oxycline at O2 concentrations of 10 - 30 µmol L-1 which coincided with highest archaeal amoA transcripts/genes. Oxygen responses of N2O production varied with substrate, but production and yields were generally highest below 10 µmol L-1 O2. Particulate organic matter additions increased N2O production by denitrification up to 5-fold suggesting increased N2O production during times of high particulate organic matter export. High N2O yields from ammonium oxidation of 2.1% were measured, but the overall contribution to N2O production stays an order of magnitude behind denitrification as an N2O source. Hence, these findings show that denitrification is the most important N2O production process in low oxygen conditions fueled by organic carbon supply which implies a positive feedback of the total oceanic N2O sources in response to increasing oceanic deoxygenation. [SUBMITTER_CITATION]: Frey, C., Bange, H. W., Achterberg, E. P., Jayakumar, A., Löscher, C. R., Arévalo-Martínez, D. L., León-Palmero, E., Sun, M., Sun, X., Xie, R. C., Oleynik, S., and Ward, B. B.: Regulation of nitrous oxide production in low-oxygen waters off the coast of Peru, Biogeosciences, 17, 2263-2287
Project description:Oxygen deficient zones (ODZs) are major sites of net natural oceanic nitrous oxide (N2O) production and emissions. In order to understand changes in the magnitude of N2O production in response to global change, knowledge on the individual contributions of the major microbial pathways (nitrification and denitrification) to N2O production and their regulation is needed. In the ODZ of the coastal area off Peru, the sensitivity of N2O production to oxygen and organic matter was investigated using 15N-tracer experiments in combination with qPCR and microarray analysis of total and active functional genes targeting archaeal amoA and nirS as marker genes for nitrification and denitrification, respectively. Denitrification was responsible for the highest N2O production with mean 8.7 nmol L-1 d-1 but up to 118 ± 27.8 nmol L-1 d-1 just below the oxic-anoxic interface. Highest N2O production from AO of 0.16 ± 0.003 nmol L-1 d-1 occurred in the upper oxycline at O2 concentrations of 10 - 30 µmol L-1 which coincided with highest archaeal amoA transcripts/genes. Oxygen responses of N2O production varied with substrate, but production and yields were generally highest below 10 µmol L-1 O2. Particulate organic matter additions increased N2O production by denitrification up to 5-fold suggesting increased N2O production during times of high particulate organic matter export. High N2O yields from ammonium oxidation of 2.1% were measured, but the overall contribution to N2O production stays an order of magnitude behind denitrification as an N2O source. Hence, these findings show that denitrification is the most important N2O production process in low oxygen conditions fueled by organic carbon supply which implies a positive feedback of the total oceanic N2O sources in response to increasing oceanic deoxygenation. [SUBMITTER_CITATION]: Frey, C., Bange, H. W., Achterberg, E. P., Jayakumar, A., Löscher, C. R., Arévalo-Martínez, D. L., León-Palmero, E., Sun, M., Sun, X., Xie, R. C., Oleynik, S., and Ward, B. B.: Regulation of nitrous oxide production in low-oxygen waters off the coast of Peru, Biogeosciences, 17, 2263-2287
Project description:Effect of chlorination on the toxicity of wastewater effluents treated by activated sludge (AS) and submerged membrane bioreactor (S-MBRB) systems to HepG2 human hepatoblastoma cells was investigated. In addition to cytotoxicity assay, the DNA microarray-based transcriptome analysis was performed to evaluate the change in modes of toxic actions (MOAs) of effluents by chlorination. Effluent organic matters (EfOM) and disinfection by-products (DBPs) were characterized by using Fourier transform mass spectrometry (FT-MS). The cytotoxicity of AS effluent was elevated by chlorination, while the toxicity of S-MBRB effluent was reduced. The averaged O/C ratio of EfOM in S-MBRB effluent was lower than that in AS effluent. The results of the transcriptome and FT-MS analyses suggested that lower O/C molecules influenced on “response to hormone stimulus” and “acute inflammatory response” but those were decreased by chlorination, which consequently reduced cytotoxicity. On the other hand, larger number of DBPs and other molecules were increased in AS effluents by chlorination. Those molecules might influence on “cellular metabolic process”, which consequently elevated cytotoxicity. Therefore, the combination of the toxicity assays and chemical analysis demonstrated the changes in severity of cytotoxicity and MOAs by chlorination, and the difference of chemical characteristics which relate to those toxicity changes.