Project description:The microbial community and enzymes in fermented rice using defined microbial starter, containing Rhizopus oryzae, Saccharomycopsis fibuligera, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pediococcus pentosaceus, play an important role in quality of the fermented rice product and its biological activities including melanogenesis inhibitory activity. The microbial metaproteome revealed large-scale proteins expressed by the microbial community to better understand the role of microbiota in the fermented rice.
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:The increased urban pressures are often associated with specialization of microbial communities. Microbial communities being a critical player in the geochemical processes, makes it important to identify key environmental parameters that influence the community structure and its function.In this proect we study the influence of land use type and environmental parameters on the structure and function of microbial communities. The present study was conducted in an urban catchment, where the metal and pollutants levels are under allowable limits. The overall goal of this study is to understand the role of engineered physicochemical environment on the structure and function of microbial communities in urban storm-water canals. Microbial community structure was determined using PhyoChio (G3) Water and sediment samples were collected after a rain event from Sungei Ulu Pandan watershed of >25km2, which has two major land use types: Residential and industrial. Samples were analyzed for physicochemical variables and microbial community structure and composition. Microbial community structure was determined using PhyoChio (G3)
Project description:Background: More than 100 million Americans are living with metabolic syndrome, increasing their propensity to develop heart disease– the leading cause of death worldwide. A major contributing factor to this epidemic is caloric excess, often a result of consuming low cost, high calorie fast food. Several recent seminal studies have demonstrated the pivotal role of gut microbes contributing to cardiovascular disease in a diet-dependent manner. Given the central contributions of diet and gut microbiota to cardiometabolic disease, we hypothesized that novel microbial metabolites originating postprandially after fast food consumption may contribute to cardiometabolic disease progression. Methods: To test this hypothesis, we gave conventionally raised or antibiotic-treated mice a single oral gavage of a fast food slurry or a control rodent chow diet slurry and sacrificed the mice four hours later. Here, we coupled untargeted metabolomics in portal and peripheral blood, 16S rRNA gene sequencing, targeted liver metabolomics, and host liver RNA sequencing to identify novel fast food-derived microbial metabolites. Results: We successfully identified several metabolites that were enriched in portal blood, increased by fast food feeding, and essentially absent in antibiotic-treated mice. Strikingly, just four hours post-gavage, we found that fast food consumption resulted in rapid reorganization of the gut microbial community structure and drastically altered hepatic gene expression. Importantly, diet-driven reshaping of the microbiome and liver transcriptome was dependent on a non-antibiotic ablated gut microbial community. Conclusions: Collectively, these data suggest that single fast food meal is sufficient to reshape the gut microbial community yielding a unique signature of food-derived microbial metabolites. Future studies are warranted to determine if these metabolites are causally linked to cardiometabolic disease.
Project description:The increased urban pressures are often associated with specialization of microbial communities. Microbial communities being a critical player in the geochemical processes, makes it important to identify key environmental parameters that influence the community structure and its function.In this proect we study the influence of land use type and environmental parameters on the structure and function of microbial communities. The present study was conducted in an urban catchment, where the metal and pollutants levels are under allowable limits. The overall goal of this study is to understand the role of engineered physicochemical environment on the structure and function of microbial communities in urban storm-water canals. Microbial community structure was determined using PhyoChio (G3)
Project description:Enrichments with labeled CH4 and NO2 were conducted to test microbial community correlations and constrain potential metabolic interactions between methanotrophs and other one-carbon utilizing microorganisms under low O2 conditions
Project description:To understand microbial community functional structures of activated sludge in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and the effects of environmental factors on their structure, 12 activated sludge samples were collected from four WWTPs in Beijing. GeoChip 4.2 was used to determine the microbial functional genes involved in a variety of biogeochemical processes. The results showed that, for each gene category, such as egl, amyA, nir, ppx, dsrA sox and benAB, there were a number of microorganisms shared by all 12 samples, suggestive of the presence of a core microbial community in the activated sludge of four WWTPs. Variance partitioning analyses (VPA) showed that a total of 53% of microbial community variation can be explained by wastewater characteristics (25%) and operational parameters (23%), respectively. This study provided an overall picture of microbial community functional structures of activated sludge in WWTPs and discerned the linkages between microbial communities and environmental variables in WWTPs.
Project description:To understand microbial community functional structures of activated sludge in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and the effects of environmental factors on their structure, 12 activated sludge samples were collected from four WWTPs in Beijing. GeoChip 4.2 was used to determine the microbial functional genes involved in a variety of biogeochemical processes. The results showed that, for each gene category, such as egl, amyA, nir, ppx, dsrA sox and benAB, there were a number of microorganisms shared by all 12 samples, suggestive of the presence of a core microbial community in the activated sludge of four WWTPs. Variance partitioning analyses (VPA) showed that a total of 53% of microbial community variation can be explained by wastewater characteristics (25%) and operational parameters (23%), respectively. This study provided an overall picture of microbial community functional structures of activated sludge in WWTPs and discerned the linkages between microbial communities and environmental variables in WWTPs. Four full-scale wastewater treatment systems located in Beijing were investigated. Triplicate samples were collected in each site.
Project description:The response of soil microbial community to climate warming through both function shift and composition reorganization may profoundly influence global nutrient cycles, leading to potential significant carbon release from the terrain to the atmosphere. Despite the observed carbon flux change in northern permafrost, it remains unclear how soil microbial community contributes to this ecosystem alteration. Here, we applied microarray-based GeoChip 4.0 to investigate the functional and compositional response of subsurface (15~25cm) soil microbial community under about one year’s artificial heating (+2°C) in the Carbon in Permafrost Experimental Heating Research site on Alaska’s moist acidic tundra. Statistical analyses of GeoChip signal intensities showed significant microbial function shift in AK samples. Detrended correspondence analysis and dissimilarity tests (MRPP and ANOSIM) indicated significant functional structure difference between the warmed and the control communities. ANOVA revealed that 60% of the 70 detected individual genes in carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous and sulfur cyclings were substantially increased (p<0.05) by heating. 18 out of 33 detected carbon degradation genes were more abundant in warming samples in AK site, regardless of the discrepancy of labile or recalcitrant C, indicating a high temperature sensitivity of carbon degradation genes in rich carbon pool environment. These results demonstrated a rapid response of northern permafrost soil microbial community to warming. Considering the large carbon storage in northern permafrost region, microbial activity in this region may cause dramatic positive feedback to climate change, which is important and necessary to be integrated into climate change models.
Project description:Known as “The Oriental Botanic Garden” and the natural gene bank of biological species, Shennongjia is one of the most biologically diverse areas in China and a member of UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves. The macro-organism resources of shennongjia have been deeply explored. However, the microbial community structure was scarcely detected. In this study, we aim to detedect the microbial community along six sites of Shennonajia Mountain and explore the major controlling factor in shaping microbial community with a microarray-based metagenomics tool named GeoChip 4.2.