Dataset Information

Thaumarchaeotes abundant in refinery nitrifying sludges express amoA but are not obligate autotrophic ammonia oxidizers.

ABSTRACT: Nitrification is a core process in the global nitrogen cycle that is essential for the functioning of many ecosystems. The discovery of autotrophic ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) within the phylum Thaumarchaeota has changed our perception of the microbiology of nitrification, in particular since their numerical dominance over ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in many environments has been revealed. These and other data have led to a widely held assumption that all amoA-encoding members of the Thaumarchaeota (AEA) are autotrophic nitrifiers. In this study, 52 municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants were screened for the presence of AEA and AOB. Thaumarchaeota carrying amoA were detected in high abundance only in four industrial plants. In one plant, thaumarchaeotes closely related to soil group I.1b outnumbered AOB up to 10,000-fold, and their numbers, which can only be explained by active growth in this continuous culture system, were two to three orders of magnitude higher than could be sustained by autotrophic ammonia oxidation. Consistently, (14)CO(2) fixation could only be detected in AOB but not in AEA in actively nitrifying sludge from this plant via FISH combined with microautoradiography. Furthermore, in situ transcription of archaeal amoA, and very weak in situ labeling of crenarchaeol after addition of (13)CO(2), was independent of the addition of ammonium. These data demonstrate that some amoA-carrying group I.1b Thaumarchaeota are not obligate chemolithoautotrophs.

SUBMITTER: Mussmann M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3189051 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Thaumarchaeotes abundant in refinery nitrifying sludges express amoA but are not obligate autotrophic ammonia oxidizers.

Mussmann Marc M Brito Ivana I Pitcher Angela A Sinninghe Damsté Jaap S JS Hatzenpichler Roland R Richter Andreas A Nielsen Jeppe L JL Nielsen Per Halkjær PH Müller Anneliese A Daims Holger H Wagner Michael M Head Ian M IM

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20110919 40

Nitrification is a core process in the global nitrogen cycle that is essential for the functioning of many ecosystems. The discovery of autotrophic ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) within the phylum Thaumarchaeota has changed our perception of the microbiology of nitrification, in particular since their numerical dominance over ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in many environments has been revealed. These and other data have led to a widely held assumption that all amoA-encoding members of the Th ...[more]

PMID: 21930919

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Project description:Land use types with different disturbance gradients show many variations in soil properties, but the effects of different land use types on soil nitrifying communities and their ecological implications remain poorly understood. Using 13CO2-DNA-based stable isotope probing (DNA-SIP), we examined the relative importance and active community composition of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB) and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) in soils under three land use types, forest, cropland, and greenhouse vegetable soil, representing three interference gradients. Soil net nitrification rate was in the order forest soil > cropland soil > greenhouse vegetable soil. DNA-SIP showed that active AOA outcompeted AOB in the forest soil, whereas AOB outperformed AOA in the cropland and greenhouse vegetable soils. Cropland soil was richer in NOB than in AOA and AOB. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that ammonia oxidation in the forest soil was predominantly catalyzed by the AOA Nitrosocosmicus franklandus cluster within the group 1.1b lineage. The 13C-labeled AOB were overwhelmingly dominated by Nitrosospira cluster 3 in the cropland soil. The active AOB Nitrosococcus watsonii lineage was observed in the greenhouse vegetable soil, and it played an important role in nitrification. Active NOB communities were closely affiliated with Nitrospira in the forest and cropland soils, and with Nitrolancea and Nitrococcus in the greenhouse vegetable soil. Canonical correlation analysis showed that soil pH and organic matter content significantly affected the active nitrifier community composition. These results suggest that land use types with different disturbance gradients alter the distribution of active nitrifier communities by affecting soil physicochemical properties. IMPORTANCE Nitrification plays an important role in the soil N cycle, and land use management has a profound effect on soil nitrifiers. It is unclear how different gradients of land use affect active ammonia-oxidizing archaea and bacteria and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria. Our research is significant because we determined the response of nitrifiers to human disturbance, which will greatly improve our understanding of the niche of nitrifiers and the differences in their physiology.

Project description:The current perception of evolutionary relationships and the natural diversity of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) is mainly based on comparative sequence analyses of their genes encoding the 16S rRNA and the active site polypeptide of the ammonia monooxygenase (AmoA). However, only partial 16S rRNA sequences are available for many AOB species and most AOB have not yet been analyzed on the amoA level. In this study, the 16S rDNA sequence data of 10 Nitrosomonas species and Nitrosococcus mobilis were completed. Furthermore, previously unavailable 16S rRNA sequences were determined for three Nitrosomonas sp. isolates and for the gamma-subclass proteobacterium Nitrosococcus halophilus. These data were used to revaluate the specificities of published oligonucleotide primers and probes for AOB. In addition, partial amoA sequences of 17 AOB, including the above-mentioned 15 AOB, were obtained. Comparative phylogenetic analyses suggested similar but not identical evolutionary relationships of AOB by using 16S rRNA and AmoA as marker molecules, respectively. The presented 16S rRNA and amoA and AmoA sequence data from all recognized AOB species significantly extend the currently used molecular classification schemes for AOB and now provide a more robust phylogenetic framework for molecular diversity inventories of AOB. For 16S rRNA-independent evaluation of AOB species-level diversity in environmental samples, amoA and AmoA sequence similarity threshold values were determined which can be used to tentatively identify novel species based on cloned amoA sequences. Subsequently, 122 amoA sequences were obtained from 11 nitrifying wastewater treatment plants. Phylogenetic analyses of the molecular isolates showed that in all but two plants only nitrosomonads could be detected. Although several of the obtained amoA sequences were only relatively distantly related to known AOB, none of these sequences unequivocally suggested the existence of previously unrecognized species in the wastewater treatment environments examined.

Dataset Information

Thaumarchaeotes abundant in refinery nitrifying sludges express amoA but are not obligate autotrophic ammonia oxidizers.

Publications

Thaumarchaeotes abundant in refinery nitrifying sludges express amoA but are not obligate autotrophic ammonia oxidizers.

Similar Datasets

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