Project description:Acididesulfobacillus acetoxydans is an acidophilic sulfate reducer that can dissimilatory reduce nitrate to ammonia (DNRA). However, no known nitrite reductase is encoded. This study was performed to investigate how A. acetoxydans reduces nitrate to nitrite and elucidated a novel DNRA mechanism and potential nitrosative stress resistance mechanisms in acidophiles.
Project description:Nitrification, the oxidation of ammonia via nitrite to nitrate, has always been considered to be a two-step process catalysed by chemolithoautotrophic microorganisms oxidizing either ammonia or nitrite. No known nitrifier carries out both steps, although complete nitrification should be energetically advantageous. This functional separation has puzzled microbiologists for a century. Here we report on the discovery and cultivation of a completely nitrifying bacterium from the genus Nitrospira, a globally distributed group of nitrite oxidizers. The genome of this chemolithoautotrophic organism encodes the pathways both for ammonia and nitrite oxidation, which are concomitantly activated during growth by ammonia oxidation to nitrate. Genes affiliated with the phylogenetically distinct ammonia monooxygenase and hydroxylamine dehydrogenase genes of Nitrospira are present in many environments and were retrieved on Nitrospira contigs in new metagenomes from engineered systems. These findings fundamentally change our picture of nitrification and point to completely nitrifying Nitrospira as key components of nitrogen-cycling microbial communities.
Project description:N retention in soils can be stimulated by microorganisms carrying out dissimilatory reduction of nitrate to ammonia (DNRA), a respiratory activity that converts nitrate and/or nitrite to ammonia. Geobacter lovleyi has recently being recognized as a key driver of DNRA, providing a model to investigate the environmental signals that promote nitrate ammonification. Here we show that low nitrate concentrations (5mM) induce DNRA in G. lovleyi independently of the concentration of the electron donor, thus challenging the prevailing view that high carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio triggers this process. The nitrate transcriptome revealed a complex metabolic network of periplasmic (Nap) and cytoplasmic (Nar) nitrate reductase systems for the reduction of nitrate to nitrite. The transcriptome also included a canonical (NrfA-1), two Geobacter-specific nitrite reductases (NrfA-2 and NrfA-3) and a membrane-bound NrfH cytochrome, which electronically connects NrfA to the menaquinone pool. Flagellar motility and chemotaxis proteins were also among the most upregulated genes in the nitrate cultures, consistent with an adaptive response that allows Geobacter cells to sense and access the limited supply of nitrate in anaerobic zones of the soils and sediments. This is the first demonstration of the ability of the bacteria to use DNRA pathway under nitrate limiting conditions independently of the C/N ratio. G. lovleyi provides a model for study DNRA process and it is a good candidate that could contribute in the retention of nitrogen in soils leading to efficient use of nitrogen containing fertilizers and preventing nitrate leaching.
Project description:Microbes play a critical role in the global arsenic biogeocycle. Most studies have focused on redox cycling of inorganic arsenic in bacteria and archaea. The parallel cycles of organoarsenical biotransformations are less well characterized. Here we describe organoarsenical biotransformations in the environmental microbe Shewanella putrefaciens. Under aerobic growth conditions, S. putrefaciens reduced the herbicide MSMA (methylarsenate or MAs(V)) to methylarsenite (MAs(III)). Even though it does not contain an arsI gene, which encodes the ArsI C-As lyase, S. putrefaciens demethylated MAs(III) to As(III). It cleaved the C-As bond in aromatic arsenicals such as the trivalent forms of the antimicrobial agents roxarsone (Rox(III)), nitarsone (Nit(III)) and phenylarsenite (PhAs(III)), which have been used as growth promoters for poultry and swine. S. putrefaciens thiolated methylated arsenicals, converting MAs(V) into the more toxic metabolite monomethyl monothioarsenate (MMMTAs(V)), and transformed dimethylarsenate (DMAs(V)) into dimethylmonothioarsenate (DMMTAs(V)). It also reduced the nitro groups of Nit(V), forming p-aminophenyl arsenate (p-arsanilic acid or p-AsA(V)), and Rox(III), forming 3-amino-4-hydroxybenzylarsonate (3A4HBzAs(V)). Elucidation of organoarsenical biotransformations by S. putrefaciens provides a holistic appreciation of how these environmental pollutants are degraded.