Project description:Rhodobacter sphaeroides produces hydrogen gas (H2) via its nitrogenase enzyme during photoheterotrophic growth under nitrogen-limited conditions. We find that cells produce different amounts of H2 and show different growth rates, depending on the organic substrate provided (lactate, succinate, glucose, xylose, or glycerol). We used global transcript analyses to determine what genes are involved in the onset of H2 production, and those that lead to different H2 production capacities in cells fed different organic substrates.
Project description:Large amounts of carbon sequestered in permafrost are becoming available for microbial degradation. We investigated 1,529 microbial metagenome-assembled genomes recovered from our site to understand carbon processing in this environment. Metabolic reconstruction, supported by metatranscriptomic and metaproteomic data, revealed key populations involved in organic matter degradation, including bacteria encoding a pathway for xylose degradation only previously identified in fungi.
Project description:Drosophila melanogaster larvae and filamentous fungi both utilise organic material. Here they compete for resources. Filamentous fungi can defend themselves and their substrate from predation respectively competition by the production and excretion of secondary metabolites, including substances with antibiotic and insecticidal properties. To analyse the traits that enables D. melanogaster larvae to reduce the harmful effects of fungal secondary metabolites and to develop on fungal infested substrate we confronted larvae with a toxin-producing wild type of Aspergillus nidulans, with a toxin-production-impaired mutant strain of A. nidulans, and with sterigmatocystin, a highly toxic metabolite of A. nidulans. Early first instar larvae were transferred to breeding substrate inhabited by fungal colonies respectively inoculated with the purified mycotoxin or controls. After 3, 6, 12, and 24 hours of confrontation larvae were collected and samples prepared for whole transcriptome shotgun sequencing.
Project description:The fate of the carbon stocked in permafrost soils following global warming and permafrost thaw is of major concern in view of the potential for increased CH4 and CO2 emissions from these soils. Complex carbon compound degradation and greenhouse gas emissions are due to soil microbial communities, but their composition and functional potential in permafrost soils are largely unknown. Here, a 2 m deep permafrost and its overlying active layer soil were subjected to metagenome sequencing, quantitative PCR, and microarray analyses. The active layer soil and 2 m permafrost soil microbial community structures were very similar, with Actinobacteria being the dominant phylum. The two soils also possessed a highly similar spectrum of functional genes, especially when compared to other already published metagenomes. Key genes related to methane generation, methane oxidation and organic matter degradation were highly diverse for both soils in the metagenomic libraries and some (e.g. pmoA) showed relatively high abundance in qPCR assays. Genes related to nitrogen fixation and ammonia oxidation, which could have important roles following climatic change in these nitrogen-limited environments, showed low diversity but high abundance. The 2 m permafrost soil showed lower abundance and diversity for all the assessed genes and taxa. Experimental biases were also evaluated and showed that the whole community genome amplification technique used caused large representational biases in the metagenomic libraries. This study described for the first time the detailed functional potential of permafrost-affected soils and detected several genes and microorganisms that could have crucial importance following permafrost thaw. A 2m deep permafrost sample and it overlying active layer were sampled and their metagenome analysed. For microarray analyses, 8 other soil samples from the same region were used for comparison purposes.
Project description:Rhodobacter sphaeroides produces hydrogen gas (H2) via its nitrogenase enzyme during photoheterotrophic growth under nitrogen-limited conditions. We find that cells produce different amounts of H2 and show different growth rates, depending on the organic substrate provided (lactate, succinate, glucose, xylose, or glycerol). We used global transcript analyses to determine what genes are involved in the onset of H2 production, and those that lead to different H2 production capacities in cells fed different organic substrates. Growth and real-time H2 production were followed for photoheterotrophically grown Rhodobacter sphaeroides cultures (19 mL test tube cultures) fed one of five different organic substrates (lactate, succinate, glucose, xylose, or glycerol) and provided glutamate as the sole nitrogen source. Cells were harvested for RNA extraction during early post-exponential growth, at points near the maximum H2 production rates of the cultures. Non-H2-producing cells (500 mL cultures) fed succinate and provided NH4+ as nitrogen source were also harvested for RNA extraction as reference samples. At least two samples for every given set of conditions were analyzed.
Project description:Anaerobic digestion is a popular and effective microbial process for waste treatment. The performance of anaerobic digestion processes is contingent on the balance of the microbial food web in utilizing various substrates. Recently, co-digestion, i.e., supplementing the primary substrate with an organic-rich co-substrate has been exploited to improve waste treatment efficiency. Yet the potential effects of elevated organic loading on microbial functional gene community remains elusive. In this study, functional gene array (GeoChip 5.0) was used to assess the response of microbial community to the addition of poultry waste in anaerobic digesters treating dairy manure. Consistent with 16S rRNA gene sequences data, GeoChip data showed that microbial community compositions were significantly shifted in favor of copiotrophic populations by co-digestion, as taxa with higher rRNA gene copy number such as Bacilli were enriched. The acetoclastic methanogen Methanosarcina was also enriched, while Methanosaeta was unaltered but more abundant than Methanosarcina throughout the study period. The microbial functional diversity involved in anaerobic digestion were also increased under co-digestion.
Project description:Coastal marine sediments, as locations of substantial fixed nitrogen loss, are very important to the nitrogen budget and to the primary productivity of the oceans. Coastal sediment systems are also highly dynamic and subject to periodic natural and anthropogenic organic substrate additions. The response to organic matter by the microbial community involved in nitrogen loss processes was evaluated using mesocosms of Chesapeake Bay sediments. Over the course of a 50-day incubation, rates of anammox and denitrification were measured weekly using 15N tracer incubations, and samples were collected for genetic analysis. Rates of both nitrogen loss processes and gene abundances associated with them corresponded loosely, probably because heterogeneities in sediments obscured a clear relationship. The rates of denitrification were stimulated more by the higher organic matter addition, and the fraction of nitrogen loss attributed to anammox slightly reduced. Furthermore, the large organic matter pulse drove a significant and rapid shift in the denitrifier community as determined using a nirS microarray, indicating the diversity of these organisms plays an essential role in responding to anthropogenic inputs. We also suggest that the proportion of nitrogen loss due to anammox in these coastal estuarine sediments may be underestimated due to temporal dynamics as well as from methodological artifacts related to conventional sediment slurry incubation approaches.
Project description:Sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins including transcription factors (TFs) are key determinants of gene regulation and chromatin architecture. Formaldehyde cross-linking and sonication followed by Chromatin ImmunoPrecipitation (X-ChIP) and sequencing is widely used for genome-wide profiling of protein binding, but is limited by low resolution and poor specificity and sensitivity. We have implemented a simple genome-wide ChIP protocol that starts with micrococcal nuclease-digested uncross-linked chromatin followed by affinity purification and paired-end sequencing without size-selection. The resulting ORGANIC (Occupied Regions of Genomes from Affinity-purified Naturally Isolated Chromatin) profiles of the budding yeast TFs Abf1 and Reb1 achieved near-perfect accuracy, in contrast to other profiling methods, which were much less sensitive and specific. Unlike profiles produced using X-ChIP methods such as ChIP-exo, ORGANIC profiles are not biased toward identifying sites in accessible chromatin and do not require input normalization. We also demonstrate the high specificity of our method when applied to larger genomes by profiling Drosophila GAGA Factor and Pipsqueak. Taken together, these results suggest that ORGANIC profiling outperforms current X-ChIP methodologies for genome-wide profiling of TF binding sites. Chromatin immunoprecipitation of micrococcal nuclease-digested native chromatin followed by paired-end sequencing (Occupied Regions of Genomes from Affinity-purified Naturally Isolated Chromatin 'ORGANIC' profiling) of DNA-binding proteins Abf1 and Reb1 from S. cerevisiae and GAGA-binding factor (GAF) and Pipsqueak (Psq) from D. melanogaster S2 cells; and, Sono-seq (paired-end sequencing of formaldehyde cross-linked and sonicated chromatin) of yeast nuclei. Reb1 ORGANIC profiling was performed at three different salt (NaCl) concentrations (80, 150, and 600 mM) and Abf1 ORGANIC profiling was done at two different salt concentrations (80 and 600 mM) to achieve varying levels of stringency. GAF and Psq ORGANIC profiles were determined at 80 mM salt. Two replicates each of Reb1 and Abf1 600 mM ORGANIC experiments, mixed Drosophila S2 cell and S. cerevisiae nuclei Reb1 ORGANIC experiments, yeast Sono-seq, and GAF and Psq ORGANIC experiments were performed. Each S. cerevisiae and mixed S2 cell/yeast ORGANIC profiling experiment included separately sequenced input chromatin and ChIP samples. Total of 24 samples.