Project description:A photosynthetic cyanobacterial/microbial consortium was incubated in the dark for 12 days. During the course of this dark incubation, samples were taken every two days from the biomass portion and the liquid (supernatant) portion of the bioreactor. Metaproteomics analysis was conducted on these time series samples and binned and assembled metagenomes from the same samples were used as the database for protein identification.
Project description:rs07-09_bou - catma1-bou - Autotrophic growth acquisition is abolished in the bou mutant in Arabidopsis thaliana. BOU encodes a putative mitochondrial acyl carnitine carrier. bou mutant is blocked at the cotyledon stage. Autotrophic growth of the bou mutant can be achieved with addition of sugar in the medium or in darkness. Moreover, BOU gene expression is activated by light and depends on plant developmental stage. We wish to determine what are the consequences of bou gene mutation at the transcriptome level. We wish to understand whether bou growth arrest is due to the modification of specific genes expression or to a general effect on metabolism at the transition from heterotrophic to autotrophic growth. - Seeds from a heterozygous plants were grown for either 5 or 8 days after germination on synthetic medium (MS/2) without sugar under continuous light. We harvested cotyledon-stage blocked plants (bou phenotype) from three independent Petri dishes and also green seedlings with true leaves and fully developed root (heterozygotes with a wild-type phenotype) . We also grew independently Col-O plants for 5 and 8 days to compare them with the bou mutants. Keywords: gene knock in (transgenic),normal vs disease comparison,time course
Project description:The Wood-Ljungdahl pathway in acetogens converts C1 compounds, such as CO2 and CO, into acetyl-CoA. Similarly, the glycine synthase pathway assimilates C1 compounds into glycine. Partial glycine synthase genes are widely conserved in the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway gene cluster but functional relationship between the pathways in autotrophic condition remains unknown. To comprehend, we assembled Clostridium drakei genome (5.7-Mbp) with intact glycine synthase pathway and constructed a genome-scale metabolic model, iSL836, predicting increased metabolic flux rates of the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway and the glycine synthase-reductase associated reactions under autotrophic conditions. Along with the observation of significant transcriptional activation of genes in the pathways, surprisingly, 13C-labeling experiments and enzyme activity assays confirmed the strain synthesizes glycine and converts into acetyl-phosphate. This study suggests the Wood-Ljungdahl and the glycine synthase-reductase pathways convert CO2 into acetyl-CoA and acetyl-phosphate, respectively. In our knowledge, this is the first report on co-utilization of the pathways under autotrophic growth in acetogen.
Project description:Two consortia (Consortium A and Consortium B) that can use 1,4-dioxane (a groundwater contaminant of emerging concern) as the sole carbon source were enriched from Rice University (Houston, TX, USA) campus soil. Phylogenetic analysis by 16S rRNA sequencing revealed the dominant genus in both of the consortia is Mycobacterium (56% in Consortium A and 49% in Consortium B). The predominance of Mycobacterium spp, in these consortia support the notion that this is an important and commonly encountered genus of dioxane degraders. Among other genera present that make at least 2% of these consortia, only Afipia encompasses a strain (i.e., Afipia sp. D1) that was reported to degrade dioxane as sole carbon and energy source. A nested PCR analysis using two degenerate primers to target the hydroxylase alpha subunit of groups 3 to 6 SDIMOs was performed to gain insights into which enzymes were responsible for dioxane degradation by these consortia. The purified products obtained from the second PCR run were sequenced and compared to genes databases (NCBI) encompassing all of the currently reported SDIMOs. The dominant SDIMO genes in Consortium A corresponded to a group-6 putative propane monooxygenase-like SDIMO (98.8%); while in Consortium B, SDIMO genes from both groups 5 (47.3%) and 6 (51.9%) were observed. In both consortia, the relative abundance of thmA/dxmA gene was negligible (0.03%), which is consistent with the negative amplification of these genes as verified in qPCR. Overall, the high relative abundance of group-6 putative propane monooxygenases in our two consortia suggests the novel finding that group 6-SDIMOs could also play an important role in dioxane degradation. This underscores the need for further research on genes and enzymes involved in dioxane biodegradation to develop novel biomarkers that can be useful for forensic analysis and performance assessment of bioremediation and natural attenuation at dioxane-impacted sites. DNA was extracted from bacteria biomass harvested in exponential growth phase, when half or more of the added dioxane (100 mg/L) was consumed. Total DNA extractions were performed using the UltraClean® Microbial DNA Isolation Kit (MO BIO, Carlsbad, CA, USA) according to the manufacturer’s protocol. The V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was amplified by PCR using the forward 515F and reverse 806R primers. Sequencing was performed at MR DNA (www.mrdnalab.com, Shallowater, TX, USA) by Illumina MiSeq paired-end sequencing (approximately 2×300 bp as the read length). Sequence data were processed using MR DNA analysis pipeline. Operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were defined by clustering at 3% divergence (97% similarity). Final OTUs were taxonomically classified using BLASTn against the RDPII (http://rdp.cme.msu.edu) and NCBI (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) databases.Previously designed degenerate primers NVC57, NVC58, NVC65 and NVC66 to target conserved regions in the soluble di-iron monooxygenases (SDIMO) alpha subunit gene (groups 3 to 6) were used to examine the presence and diversity of SDIMO genes in these two consortia. A nested PCR strategy was used to increase the PCR product yield. In the first run, the PCR mixture contained 1 µL of NVC65 and NVC58 primer mixture (10 µM), 20 ng of the extracted genomic DNA, 12.5 µL of KAPA HiFi HotStart ReadyMix (2X) (KAPA Biosystems, Wilmington, MA, USA), and nuclease-free water to yield a total volume of 25 µL. PCR was performed in a Bio-Rad Thermal Cycler (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA, USA) with the following temperature profile: initial denaturation (94°C, 5 min), then 29 amplification cycles (94°C for 30 s, 55°C for 30 s, 72°C for 1 min per kb) and a final extension (72°C for 5 min). The length of the PCR products in the first run was checked by 1% agarose gel and DNA bands of the correct size (1100 bp) were excised and purified. 20 ng of the purified PCR product was used as the DNA template in the second run, with the second set of primers (NVC57 and NVC66). The purified product (420 bp) from the second PCR was sent to MR DNA (www.mrdnalab.com, Shallowater, TX, USA) for Illumina MiSeq paired-end sequencing (approximately 2×300 bp as the read length). Sequence data were processed using MR DNA analysis pipeline. Operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were defined by clustering at 3% divergence (97% similarity). A database including all of the currently reported SDIMO genes on NCBI was created and used to taxonomically classify the final OTUs.
Project description:These research areas concentrate on stress induced proteases in recombinant Escherichia coli, glycosylation heterogeneity due to bioprocess conditions produced in mammalian cells, and metabolic engineering of E. coli. The hypothesis of this project is that recombinant protein glycosylation is inefficient under normal bioreactor conditions since the additional glycosylation reactions necessary for the recombinant protein exceed the metabolic capacity of the cells. Normal bioreactor conditions have been optimized for cell growth, and sometimes for protein productivity. Only recently has it been accepted that optimal glycosylation may not occur under optimal growth or protein productivity conditions. Specific Aim: Determine the relationship between bioreactor conditions and glycosylation gene expression in NS0 cells.
Project description:Thiocyanate and organic carbon inputs drive convergent selection for specific autotrophic Afipia and Thiobacillus strains within complex microbiomes