Project description:Population dynamics of methanogenic genera was investigated in pilot anaerobic digesters. Cattle manure and two-phase olive mill wastes were codigested at a 3:1 ratio in two reactors operated at 37 ï¾°C and 55 ï¾°C. Other two reactors were run with either residue at 37 ï¾°C. Sludge DNA extracted from samples taken from all four reactors on days 4, 14 and 28 of digestion was used for hybridisation with the AnaeroChip, an oligonucleotide microarray targeting those groups of methanogenic archaea that are commonly found under mesophilic and thermophilic conditions (Franke-Whittle et al. 2009, in press, doi:10.1016/j.mimet.2009.09.017).
Project description:The thermophilic fungus Chaetomium thermophilum has been successfully used in the past for biochemical and high resolution structural studies of protein complexes, but subsequent functional analysis of these assemblies were hindered due to the lack of genetic tools in this thermophile, which are typically amenable in several other mesophilic eukaryotic model organisms, in particular the yeast Saccharomycers cerevisiae. Hence, we aimed to develop a regulatable gene-expression system in C. thermophilum, which might facilitate such in vivo studies, based on what we know about the galactose-inducible GAL promoter in yeast. To identify sugar-regulatable promoters in C. thermophilum, we performed comparative xylose- versus glucose-dependent gene expression studies, which uncovered a number of enzymes induced by xylose but repressed by glucose. Subsequently, we cloned the promoters of the two most stringently regulated genes, the xylosidase-like gene (XYL) and xylitol dehydrogenase (XDH), obtained from this genome-wide analysis in front of the thermostable YFP (yellow fluorescent protein) reporter. In this way, we could demonstrate xylose-dependent YFP expression by either western blotting or life cell imaging fluorescence microscopy. Prompted by these results, we finally expressed a well-characterized dominant-negative ribosome assembly factor mutant, rsa4 E117>D, under the control of the XDH promoter, which allowed us to induce a nuclear export defect of the pre-60S subunit when C. thermophilum cells were grown in xylose but not glucose containing medium. Altogether, our study recognized xylose-regulatable promoters in Chaetomium thermophilum, which may foster functional studies of genes of interest in this thermophilic eukaryotic model organism.
Project description:Comparison of the proteins of thermophilic, mesophilic and psychrophilic prokaryotes has revealed a number of features characteristic to proteins adapted to high temperatures, which increase their thermostability. These characteristics include an excess of disulfide bonds, salt bridges, hydrogen bonds, and hydrophobic interactions, and a depletion in intrinsically disordered regions. It is unclear, however, whether such differences can also be observed when comparing proteins that are adapted to temperatures that are more subtly different. When an organism is exposed to high temperatures, a subset of its proteins are overexpressed (heat-induced proteins), whereas others are repressed (heat-repressed proteins). Here, we determine the expression levels of all Arabidopsis thaliana genes at 22 and 37°C, and compare the amino acid compositions and levels of intrinsic disorder of heat-induced and heat-repressed proteins. We show that heat-induced proteins are enriched in electrostatically charged amino acids and depleted in polar amino acids, mirroring thermopile proteins. However, in contrast with thermophile proteins, heat-repressed proteins are enriched in intrinsically disordered regions and depleted in hydrophobic amino acids. These results indicate that temperature adaptation at the level of amino acid composition and intrinsic disorder can be observed not only in proteins of thermophilic organisms, but also in eukaryotic heat-induced proteins; however, the underlying adaptation pathways are similar but not exactly the same.
2019-05-16 | GSE116592 | GEO
Project description:Anaerobic digestion of cheese whey under mesophilic and thermophilic conditions
| PRJNA503107 | ENA
Project description:Enrichment of Mesophilic and Thermophilic Mixed Microbial Consortia for Syngas Biomethanation