Project description:Comparative genomics of heterotrophic nitrifiers for detection and characterization of genes involved in the NH/DA metabolic pathway
Project description:Gordonia amicalis infection has never been reported in humans. We report here the first case of G. amicalis-related cutaneous infection after a traumatic injury. The isolate was confirmed by 16S rRNA sequencing analysis, and the patient responded well to repeated debridement and antibiotic treatment.
Project description:Microbial chemoautotroph-heterotroph interactions may play a pivotal role in the cycling of carbon in the deep ocean, reminiscent of phytoplankton-heterotroph associations in surface waters. Nitrifiers are the most abundant chemoautotrophs in the global ocean, yet very little is known about nitrifier metabolite production, release, and transfer to heterotrophic microbial communities. To elucidate which organic compounds are released by nitrifiers and potentially available to heterotrophs, we characterized the endo- and exometabolomes of the ammonia-oxidizing archaeon Nitrosopumilus adriaticus CCS1 and the nitrite-oxidizing bacterium Nitrospina gracilis Nb-211. Nitrifier endometabolome composition was not a good predictor of exometabolite availability, indicating that metabolites were predominately released by mechanisms other than cell death/lysis. While both nitrifiers released labile organic compounds, N. adriaticus preferentially released amino acids, in particular glycine, suggesting that its cell membranes might be more permeable to small, hydrophobic amino acids. We further initiated co-culture systems between each nitrifier and a heterotrophic alphaproteobacterium, and compared exometabolite and transcription patterns of nitrifiers grown axenically to those in co-culture. Particularly, B vitamins exhibited dynamic production and consumption patterns in co-cultures, including a higher release of pantothenic acid (vitamin B5) in both co-culture systems, and increased amounts of riboflavin (vitamin B2) and the vitamin B12 ligand dimethylbenzimidazole in co-cultures with N. adriaticus and N. gracilis, respectively. In contrast, the heterotroph likely consumed the vitamin B7 precursor dethiobiotin in co-culture with N. gracilis. Our results indicate that B vitamins and their precursors could play a particularly important role in governing specific metabolic interactions between nitrifiers and heterotrophic microbes in the ocean.
The work (proposal:https://doi.org/10.46936/10.25585/60001318) conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (https://ror.org/04xm1d337), a DOE Office of Science User Facility, is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.
Project description:Here we show that the phytochrome-less chlorophyte Chlamydomonas reinhardtii retains a functional pathway to synthesize the linear tetrapyrrole (bilin) precursor of the phytochrome chromophore. Reverse genetic, metabolic inactivation and bilin rescue experiments establish that this pathway is needed for heme iron acquisition and for the diurnal transition to phototrophic growth. RNA-Seq measurements reveal a bilin-dependent signaling network that is necessary for the heterotrophic to phototrophic transition. These results imply the presence of a novel bilin sensor pathway that may be widely distributed amongst oxygenic photosynthetic organisms. We isolated RNA from heterotrophic suspension cultures of 4A+ WT and the hmox1 mutant grown in the presence or absence of 0.1 mM BV IXM-NM-1 before and after transfer to low light.