Project description:Land cover change has long been recognized that marked effect the amount of soil organic carbon. However, little is known about microbial-mediated effect processes and mechanism on soil organic carbon. In this study, the soil samples in a degenerated succession from alpine meadow to alpine steppe meadow in Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau degenerated, were analyzed by using GeoChip functional gene arrays.
Project description:Bacterium Sphingomonas glacialis AAP5 isolated from the alpine lake Gossenköllesee contains genes for anoxygenic phototrophy as well as proton-pumping xanthorhodopsin. Here we show that AAP5 expresses xanthorhodopsin when illuminated at temperatures below 16°C. In contrast bacteriochlorophyll-containing reaction centers are expressed between 4 and 22°C in the dark. Thus, cells grown at lower temperature under natural light-dark cycle produced both photosystems. The purified xanthorhodopsin contains carotenoid nostoxanthin serving as an auxiliary antenna and performs the standard photocycle. The xanthorhodopsin-containing cells reduced upon illumination their respiration, increased their ATP synthesis and produced more biomass. This documents that the harvested light energy was utilized in the metabolism, which can represent a competitive advance under carbon-limiting conditions. The presence of Sphingomonas bacteria with dual phototrophy was verified in the metagenomes collected from lake Gossenköllesee. This unique trait may represent a metabolic advantage in alpine lakes where photoheterotrophic organisms facelimited organic substrates, low temperature, and extreme changes in irradiance.
Project description:To study mixotrophy, it is desirable to have an organism capable of growth in the presence and absence of both organic and inorganic carbon sources, as well as organic and inorganic energy sources. Metallosphaera sedula is an extremely thermoacidophilic archaeon which has been shown to grow in the presence of inorganic carbon and energy source supplements (autotrophy), organic carbon and energy source supplements (heterotrophy), and in the presence of organic carbon and inorganic energy source supplements. The recent elucidation of M. sedula’s inorganic carbon fixation cycle and its genome sequence further facilitate its use in mixotrophic studies. In this study, we grow M. sedula heterotrophically in the presence of organic carbon and energy sources (0.1% tryptone), autotrophically in the presence of inorganic carbon and energy sources (H2 + CO2), and “mixotrophically” in the presence of both organic and inorganic carbon and energy sources (0.1% tryptone + H2 + CO2 ) to characterize the nature of mixotrophy exhibited.
