Project description:Dissimilatory sulfate reduction (DSR) mediated by sulfate-reducing microorganisms (SRMs) plays a pivotal role in global sulfur, carbon, oxygen, and iron cycles since ~3.5 billion years ago. The canonical DSR pathway is believed to be sulfate reduction to sulfide. Herein, we report a new DSR pathway in phylogenetically diverse SRMs through which zero-valent sulfur (ZVS) is directly generated. We identified that approximately 8.9% of sulfate reduction was directed toward ZVS with S8 as a predominant product, and the ratio of sulfate-to-ZVS could be changed with SRMs’ growth conditions, particularly the medium salinity. Further coculturing experiments and metadata analyses revealed that DSR-derived ZVS supported the growth of various ZVS-metabolizing microorganisms, highlighting this new pathway as an essential component of the sulfur biogeochemical cycle
Project description:Dissimilatory sulfate reduction (DSR) mediated by sulfate-reducing microorganisms (SRMs) plays a pivotal role in global sulfur, carbon, oxygen, and iron cycles since at least 3.5 billion y ago. The canonical DSR pathway is believed to be sulfate reduction to sulfide. Herein, we report a DSR pathway in phylogenetically diverse SRMs through which zero-valent sulfur (ZVS) is directly generated. We identified that approximately 9% of sulfate reduction was directed toward ZVS with S8 as a predominant product, and the ratio of sulfate-to-ZVS could be changed with SRMs' growth conditions, particularly the medium salinity. Further coculturing experiments and metadata analyses revealed that DSR-derived ZVS supported the growth of various ZVS-metabolizing microorganisms, highlighting this pathway as an essential component of the sulfur biogeochemical cycle.
Project description:Bacteria isolated from diverse environments were found to sense blue light to regulate their biological functions. However, this ability of deep-sea bacteria has been studied rarely. In this study, we found serendipitously that blue light stimulated excess zero-valent sulfur (ZVS) production of E. flavus 21-3, which was isolated from the deep-sea cold seep and possessed a novel thiosulfate oxidation pathway. Its ZVS production responding to the blue light was mediated by a light-oxygen-voltage histidine kinase (LOV-1477), a diguanylate cyclase (DGC-2902), a PilZ protein (mPilZ-1753) and the key thiosulfate dehydrogenase (TsdA) in its thiosulfate oxidation pathway. Subsequently, the thiosulfohydrolase (SoxB-277) was found working with another SoxB (SoxB-285) and being as substitute for each other to generate ZVS. This study provided an example of deep-sea bacteria sensing blue light to regulate thiosulfate oxidation. Deep-sea blue light potentially helped these blue-light-sensing bacteria adapt harsh conditions by diversifying their biological processes.
Project description:Sulfate often behaves conservatively in the oxygenated environments but serves as an electron acceptor for microbial respiration in a wide range of natural and engineered systems where oxygen is depleted. As a ubiquitous anaerobic dissimilatory pathway, therefore, microbial reduction of sulfate to sulfide has been of continuing interest in the field of microbiology, ecology, biochemistry, and geochemistry. Stable isotopes of sulfur are an effective tool for tracking this catabolic process as microorganisms discriminate strongly against heavy isotopes when cleaving the sulfur-oxygen bond. Along with its high preservation potential in environmental archives, a wide variation in the sulfur isotope effects can provide insights into the physiology of sulfate reducing microorganisms across temporal and spatial barriers. A vast array of parameters, including phylogeny, temperature, respiration rate, and availability of sulfate, electron donor, and other essential nutrients, has been explored as a possible determinant of the magnitude of isotope fractionation, and there is now a broad consensus that the relative availability of sulfate and electron donors primarily controls the magnitude of fractionation. As the ratio shifts toward sulfate, the sulfur isotope fractionation increases. The results of conceptual models, centered on the reversibility of each enzymatic step in the dissimilatory sulfate reduction pathway, are in qualitative agreement with the observations, although the underlying intracellular mechanisms that translate the external stimuli into the isotopic phenotype remain largely unexplored experimentally. This minireview offers a snapshot of our current understanding of the sulfur isotope effects during dissimilatory sulfate reduction as well as their potential quantitative applications. It emphasizes the importance of sulfate respiration as a model system for the isotopic investigation of other respiratory pathways that utilize oxyanions as terminal electron acceptors.
Project description:Nanoscale zero valent iron (nZVI) is used to remediate aquifers polluted by organochlorines or heavy metals and was also suggested to eliminate harmful algal blooms. nZVI can therefore affect microorganisms in the vicinity of the application area, including microalgae. However, studies on early transcriptomic effects of microalgae after exposure to nZVI are rare. Here, we described the early physiological and transcriptomic response of the freshwater ecological indicator green microalga, Raphidocelis subcapitata ATCC 22662, to 100 mg/L of reactive nZVI and non-reactive nano-magnetite (nFe3O4). The combined effect of shading and the release of total iron from nZVI posed a short-term inhibition effect leading to 15 % of deformed cells and cytosol leakage, while cells viability increased after 24 h. nZVI triggered a more pronounced transcriptomic response with (7380 differentially expressed genes [DEGs]) compared to nFe3O4 (4601 DEGs) after 1 h. nZVI, but not nFe3O4 increased the expression of genes function in DNA repair and replication, while deactivated carbohydrate-energy metabolisms, mitochondria signaling, and transmembrane ion transport. This study highlights an early fate assessment of algal cells under nZVI and nFe3O4 exposure using next-generation risk assessment methods and will serve as valuable information for safe and sustainable application of nZVI in water remediation.