Dataset Information

Strains of the toxic and bloom-forming Nodularia spumigena (cyanobacteria) can degrade methylphosphonate and release methane.

ABSTRACT: Nodularia spumigena is a nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium that forms toxic blooms in the Baltic Sea each summer and the availability of phosphorous is an important factor limiting the formation of these blooms. Bioinformatic analysis identified a phosphonate degrading (phn) gene cluster in the genome of N. spumigena suggesting that this bacterium may use phosphonates as a phosphorus source. Our results show that strains of N. spumigena could grow in medium containing methylphosphonic acid (MPn) as the sole source of phosphorous and released methane when growing in medium containing MPn. We analyzed the total transcriptomes of N. spumigena UHCC 0039 grown using MPn and compared them with cultures growing in Pi-replete medium. The phnJ, phosphonate lyase gene, was upregulated when MPn was the sole source of phosphorus, suggesting that the expression of this gene could be used to indicate the presence of bioavailable phosphonates. Otherwise, growth on MPn resulted in only a minor reconstruction of the transcriptome and enabled good growth. However, N. spumigena strains were not able to utilize any of the anthropogenic phosphonates tested. The phosphonate utilizing pathway may offer N. spumigena a competitive advantage in the Pi-limited cyanobacterial blooms of the Baltic Sea.

SUBMITTER: Teikari JE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5955973 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Strains of the toxic and bloom-forming Nodularia spumigena (cyanobacteria) can degrade methylphosphonate and release methane.

Teikari Jonna E JE Fewer David P DP Shrestha Rashmi R Hou Shengwei S Leikoski Niina N Mäkelä Minna M Simojoki Asko A Hess Wolfgang R WR Sivonen Kaarina K

The ISME journal 20180214 6

Nodularia spumigena is a nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium that forms toxic blooms in the Baltic Sea each summer and the availability of phosphorous is an important factor limiting the formation of these blooms. Bioinformatic analysis identified a phosphonate degrading (phn) gene cluster in the genome of N. spumigena suggesting that this bacterium may use phosphonates as a phosphorus source. Our results show that strains of N. spumigena could grow in medium containing methylphosphonic acid (MPn) as ...[more]

PMID: 29445131

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Project description:Bacterial communities are composed of distinct groups of potentially interacting lineages, each thought to occupy a distinct ecological niche. It remains unclear, however, how quickly niche preference evolves and whether more closely related lineages are more likely to share ecological niches. We addressed these questions by following the dynamics of two bloom-forming cyanobacterial genera over an 8-year time-course in Lake Champlain, Canada, using 16S amplicon sequencing and measurements of several environmental parameters. The two genera, Microcystis (M) and Dolichospermum (D), are frequently observed simultaneously during bloom events and thus have partially overlapping niches. However, the extent of their niche overlap is debated, and it is also unclear to what extent niche partitioning occurs among strains within each genus. To identify strains within each genus, we applied minimum entropy decomposition (MED) to 16S rRNA gene sequences. We confirmed that at a genus level, M and D have different preferences for nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations. Within each genus, we also identified strains differentially associated with temperature, precipitation, and concentrations of nutrients and toxins. In general, niche similarity between strains (as measured by co-occurrence over time) declined with genetic distance. This pattern is consistent with habitat filtering - in which closely related taxa are ecologically similar, and therefore tend to co-occur under similar environmental conditions. In contrast with this general pattern, similarity in certain niche dimensions (notably particulate nitrogen and phosphorus) did not decline linearly with genetic distance, and instead showed a complex polynomial relationship. This observation suggests the importance of processes other than habitat filtering - such as competition between closely related taxa, or convergent trait evolution in distantly related taxa - in shaping particular traits in microbial communities.

Dataset Information

Strains of the toxic and bloom-forming Nodularia spumigena (cyanobacteria) can degrade methylphosphonate and release methane.

Publications

Strains of the toxic and bloom-forming Nodularia spumigena (cyanobacteria) can degrade methylphosphonate and release methane.

Similar Datasets

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