Project description:Ultra-small microorganisms are ubiquitous in Earth's environments. Ultramicrobacteria, which are defined as having a cell volume of <0.1 μm3, are often numerically dominant in aqueous environments. Cultivated representatives among these bacteria, such as members of the marine SAR11 clade (e.g., "Candidatus Pelagibacter ubique") and freshwater Actinobacteria and Betaproteobacteria, possess highly streamlined, small genomes and unique ecophysiological traits. Many ultramicrobacteria may pass through a 0.2-μm-pore-sized filter, which is commonly used for filter sterilization in various fields and processes. Cultivation efforts focusing on filterable small microorganisms revealed that filtered fractions contained not only ultramicrocells (i.e., miniaturized cells because of external factors) and ultramicrobacteria, but also slender filamentous bacteria sometimes with pleomorphic cells, including a special reference to members of Oligoflexia, the eighth class of the phylum Proteobacteria. Furthermore, the advent of culture-independent "omics" approaches to filterable microorganisms yielded the existence of candidate phyla radiation (CPR) bacteria (also referred to as "Ca. Patescibacteria") and ultra-small members of DPANN (an acronym of the names of the first phyla included in this superphyla) archaea. Notably, certain groups in CPR and DPANN are predicted to have minimal or few biosynthetic capacities, as reflected by their extremely small genome sizes, or possess no known function. Therefore, filtered fractions contain a greater variety and complexity of microorganisms than previously expected. This review summarizes the broad diversity of overlooked filterable agents remaining in "sterile" (<0.2-μm filtered) environmental samples.
Project description:We show that choice of soil microbiome transfer method, i.e. direct soil transfers and a common soil wash procedure, dramatically influences the microbiome that develops in a new environment, using high-throughput amplicon sequencing of 16S rRNA genes and the fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. After 3 weeks of incubation in commercial potting mix, microbiomes were most similar to the source soil when a greater volume of initial soil was transferred (5% v/v transfer), and least similar when using a soil wash. Abundant operational taxonomic units were substantially affected by transfer method, suggesting that compounds transferred from the source soil, shifts in biotic interactions, or both, play an important role in their success.
Project description:Chronic Pseudomonas biofilm infections are commonly associated in patients afflicted with cystic fibrosis (CF) leading to high degree of morbidity. In a murine tumor model we demonstrated that P. aeruginosa efficiently colonizes and forms biofilms in cancerous tissue post intra-venous injection. Several non-biofilm forming mutants have been identified and incorporated in the present study. Biofilm formation by wild type strains was evident in electron microscopy and immuno-histological studies. Efficacy of currently available CF infection treatment antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin, colistin and tobramycin were tested in this model. We found out that normal doses of these antibiotics were unable to eliminate wild type P. aeruginosa PA14. However, transposon mutants of P. aeruginosa PA14 (pqsA & Pel A) had strong influence on colonization. Subsequently high doses were effective against wild type P. aeruginosa PA14 biofilms.
Project description:Extracted environmental biofilms grown on plastic devices (bioelements). The immersion site was in Jyllinge Harbour, Denmark (55.744920 N, 12.094893 E). Bottles were immersed in June 2021, followed by sampling at day 4, 7, 14, 28, 42, 56, 70, 84, 98, 112 and 126, for 12 sampling points in total.