Project description:Lactobacillus casei is remarkably adaptive to diverse habitats. To understand the evolution and adaptation of Lb. casei strains isolated from different environments, the gene content of 22 Lb. casei strains isolated from various habitats (cheeses, n=8; plant materials, n=8; and human sources, n=6) were examined by comparative genome hybridization with an Lb. casei ATCC 334-based microarray.
Project description:Iron-sulfur minerals such as pyrite are found in many marine benthic habitats. At deep-sea hydrothermal vent sites they occur as massive sulfide chimneys. Hydrothermal chimneys formed by mineral precipitation from reduced vent fluids upon mixing with cold oxygenated sea water. While microorganisms inhabiting actively venting chimneys and utilizing reduced compounds dissolved in the fluids for energy generation are well studied, only little is known about the microorganisms inhabiting inactive sulfide chimneys. We performed a comprehensive meta-proteogenomic analysis combined with radiometric dating to investigate the diversity and function of microbial communities found on inactive sulfide chimneys of different ages from the Manus Basin (SW Pacific). Our study sheds light on potential lifestyles and ecological niches of yet poorly described bacterial clades dominating inactive chimney communities.
2019-01-02 | PXD010074 | Pride
Project description:Microbiome of CCA species from different habitats
Project description:Phytomonas are a large and diverse sub-group of plant-infecting trypanosomatids that are relatively poorly understood. Little is known of their biology or how they have adapted to life inside plants. This study sequenced the genome of the Cassava (Manihot esculenta) infecting species Phytomonas francai to provide additional genome resources and new insight into the biology of this poorly understood group of organisms.
Project description:Rapid phenotypic changes in adaptive traits are crucial for organisms to thrive in changing environments. Alternanthera philoxeroides, originally a terrestrial plant from South America, has become an invasive weed in Asia, capable of colonizing both aquatic and terrestrial habitats. The mechanism by which this invasive habitat is rapidly achieved without genetic variation remains unknown. Here, we demonstrate that miRNA activity in A. philoxeroides plays a significant role in its high invasive capacity. Our results highlight that an intact miRNA pathway is essential for the survival of A.philoxeroides in aquatic habitats. We identified one key miRNA, Aph-miR162, that promotes rapid elongation of stem in aquatic environments. Upon water submergence, the levels of miR162 significantly increased in stems from 3 hours to 24 hours. TRV based VIGS-mediated knockdown of Aph-miR162 significantly disrupted stem elongation in water submergence condition, ultimately resulting in a failure of plants protruding from the water surface. Interestingly, miR162 was not up-regulated in the non-invasive sibling species Alternanthera pungens, which also originates from South America but has retained its original terrestrial habitats in Asia. More importantly, delivering the antisense RNA oligos complementary to Aph-miR162 via the nanoparticle method significantly impaired stem elongation upon water submergence, causing A. philoxeroides to wither after 2-3 weeks. Thus, our findings reveal that the miRNA pathway can drive rapid phenotypic variation, facilitating adaptation to aquatic environments. Importantly, miR162 has the potential as a bio-pesticide for controlling the invasive capacity of A. philoxeroides.
Project description:We created a multi-species microarray platform, containing probes to the whole genomes of seven different Saccharomyces species, with very dense coverage (one probe every ~500 bp) of the S. cerevisiae genome, including non-S288c regions, mitochondrial and 2 micron circle genomes, plus probes at fairly dense coverage (one probe every ~2,100 bp) for each of the genomes of six other Saccharomyces species: S. paradoxus, S. mikatae, S. kudriavzevii, S. bayanus, S. kluyveri and S. castellii. We performed array-Comparative Genomic Hybridization (aCGH) using this platform, examining 83 different Saccharomyces strains collected across a wide range of habitats; of these, 69 were widely used commercial S. cerevisiae wine strains, while the remaining 14 were from a wide range of other industrial and natural habitats. Thus, we were able to sample much of the pan-genome space of the Saccharomyces genus. We observed interspecific hybridization events, introgression events, and pervasive copy number variation (CNV) in all but a few of the strains. These CNVs were distributed throughout the strains such that they did not produce any clear phylogeny, suggesting extensive mating in both industrial and wild strains. To validate our results and to determine whether apparently similar introgressions and CNVs were identical by descent or recurrent, we also performed whole genome sequencing on nine of these strains. These data may help pinpoint genomic regions involved in adaptation to different industrial milieus, as well as shed light on the course of domestication of S. cerevisiae.
Project description:Lactobacillus casei is remarkably adaptive to diverse habitats. To understand the evolution and adaptation of Lb. casei strains isolated from different environments, the gene content of 22 Lb. casei strains isolated from various habitats (cheeses, n=8; plant materials, n=8; and human sources, n=6) were examined by comparative genome hybridization with an Lb. casei ATCC 334-based microarray. Comparative genome hybridization was performed against an Affymetrix custom microarray designed to include 2,661 (97%) chromosomal and 17 (85%) plasmid CDSs predicted to occur in Lb. casei ATCC 334, as well as all predicted CDSs in the draft Lb. helveticus CNRZ 32 genome. CDSs that were not included in the microarray design were all transposase-encoding genes.