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Chaudhari NM, Pérez-Carrascal OM, Overholt WA, Totsche KU, Küsel K. Genome streamlining in Parcubacteria transitioning from soil to groundwater. ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOME 2024; 19:41. [PMID: 38902796 PMCID: PMC11188291 DOI: 10.1186/s40793-024-00581-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2023] [Accepted: 06/03/2024] [Indexed: 06/22/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND To better understand the influence of habitat on the genetic content of bacteria, with a focus on members of Candidate Phyla Radiation (CPR) bacteria, we studied the effects of transitioning from soil via seepage waters to groundwater on genomic composition of ultra-small Parcubacteria, the dominating CPR class in seepage waters, using genome resolved metagenomics. RESULTS Bacterial metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), (318 total, 32 of Parcubacteria) were generated from seepage waters and compared directly to groundwater counterparts. The estimated average genome sizes of members of major phyla Proteobacteria, Bacteroidota and Cand. Patescibacteria (Candidate Phyla Radiation - CPR bacteria) were significantly higher in soil-seepage water as compared to their groundwater counterparts. Seepage water Parcubacteria (Paceibacteria) exhibited 1.18-fold greater mean genome size and 2-fold lower mean proportion of pseudogenes than those in groundwater. Bacteroidota and Proteobacteria also showed a similar trend of reduced genomes in groundwater compared to seepage. While exploring gene loss and adaptive gains in closely related CPR lineages in groundwater, we identified a membrane protein, and a lipoglycopeptide resistance gene unique to a seepage Parcubacterium genome. A nitrite reductase gene was also identified and was unique to the groundwater Parcubacteria genomes, likely acquired from other planktonic microbes via horizontal gene transfer. CONCLUSIONS Overall, our data suggest that bacteria in seepage waters, including ultra-small Parcubacteria, have significantly larger genomes and higher metabolic enrichment than their groundwater counterparts, highlighting possible genome streamlining of the latter in response to habitat selection in an oligotrophic environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Narendrakumar M Chaudhari
- Aquatic Geomicrobiology, Institute of Biodiversity, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
- German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Olga M Pérez-Carrascal
- Aquatic Geomicrobiology, Institute of Biodiversity, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence Balance of the Microverse, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
| | - Will A Overholt
- Aquatic Geomicrobiology, Institute of Biodiversity, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
| | - Kai U Totsche
- Cluster of Excellence Balance of the Microverse, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
- Hydrogeology, Institute of Geowissenschaften, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Burgweg 11, 07749, Jena, Germany
| | - Kirsten Küsel
- Aquatic Geomicrobiology, Institute of Biodiversity, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany.
- German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Leipzig, Germany.
- Cluster of Excellence Balance of the Microverse, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany.
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2
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Deb S, Wild MA, LeClair T, Shah DH. Discovery of novel treponemes associated with pododermatitis in elk ( Cervus canadensis). Appl Environ Microbiol 2024; 90:e0010524. [PMID: 38742897 DOI: 10.1128/aem.00105-24] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2024] [Accepted: 04/16/2024] [Indexed: 05/16/2024] Open
Abstract
Pododermatitis, also known as treponeme-associated hoof disease (TAHD), presents a significant challenge to elk (Cervus canadensis) populations in the northwestern USA, with Treponema spp. consistently implicated in the lesion development. However, identifying species-specific Treponema strains from these lesions is hindered by its culture recalcitrance and limited genomic information. This study utilized shotgun sequencing, in silico genome reconstruction, and comparative genomics as a culture-independent approach to identify metagenome-assembled Treponema genomes (MATGs) from skin scraping samples collected from captive elk experimentally challenged with TAHD. The genomic analysis revealed 10 new MATGs, with 6 representing novel genomospecies associated with pododermatitis in elk and 4 corresponding to previously identified species-Treponema pedis and Treponema phagedenis. Importantly, genomic signatures of novel genomospecies identified in this study were consistently detected in biopsy samples of free-ranging elk diagnosed with TAHD, indicating a potential etiologic association. Comparative metabolic profiling of the MATGs against other Treponema genomes showed a distinct metabolic profile, suggesting potential host adaptation or geographic uniqueness of these newly identified genomospecies. The discovery of novel Treponema genomospecies enhances our understanding of the pathogenesis of pododermatitis and lays the foundation for the development of improved molecular surveillance tools to monitor and manage the disease in free-ranging elk.IMPORTANCETreponema spp. play an important role in the development of pododermatitis in free-ranging elk; however, the species-specific detection of Treponema from pododermatitis lesions is challenging due to culture recalcitrance and limited genomic information. The study utilized shotgun sequencing and in silico genome reconstruction to identify novel Treponema genomospecies from elk with pododermatitis. The discovery of the novel Treponema species opens new avenues to develop molecular diagnostic and epidemiologic tools for the surveillance of pododermatitis in elk. These findings significantly enhance our understanding of the genomic landscape of the Treponemataceae consortium while offering valuable insights into the etiology and pathogenesis of emerging pododermatitis in elk populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sushanta Deb
- Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA
| | - Margaret A Wild
- Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA
| | - Thomas LeClair
- Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA
| | - Devendra H Shah
- Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA
- School of Veterinary Medicine, Texas Tech University, Amarillo, Texas, USA
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Bowles AMC, Williams TA, Donoghue PCJ, Campbell DA, Williamson CJ. Metagenome-assembled genome of the glacier alga Ancylonema yields insights into the evolution of streptophyte life on ice and land. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2024. [PMID: 38840553 DOI: 10.1111/nph.19860] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2024] [Accepted: 05/03/2024] [Indexed: 06/07/2024]
Abstract
Contemporary glaciers are inhabited by streptophyte algae that balance photosynthesis and growth with tolerance of low temperature, desiccation and UV radiation. These same environmental challenges have been hypothesised as the driving force behind the evolution of land plants from streptophyte algal ancestors in the Cryogenian (720-635 million years ago). We sequenced, assembled and analysed the metagenome-assembled genome of the glacier alga Ancylonema nordenskiöldii to investigate its adaptations to life in ice, and whether this represents a vestige of Cryogenian exaptations. Phylogenetic analysis confirms the placement of glacier algae within the sister lineage to land plants, Zygnematophyceae. The metagenome-assembled genome is characterised by an expansion of genes involved in tolerance of high irradiance and UV light, while lineage-specific diversification is linked to the novel screening pigmentation of glacier algae. We found no support for the hypothesis of a common genomic basis for adaptations to ice and to land in streptophytes. Comparative genomics revealed that the reductive morphological evolution in the ancestor of Zygnematophyceae was accompanied by reductive genome evolution. This first genome-scale data for glacier algae suggests an Ancylonema-specific adaptation to the cryosphere, and sheds light on the genome evolution of land plants and Zygnematophyceae.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander M C Bowles
- School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, University Road, Bristol, BS8 1SS, UK
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Biological Sciences and School of Earth Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Tom A Williams
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Biological Sciences and School of Earth Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Philip C J Donoghue
- Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Biological Sciences and School of Earth Sciences, Life Sciences Building, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Douglas A Campbell
- Department of Biology, Mount Allison University, Sackville, NB, E4L 1H3, Canada
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4
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Ouboter HT, Mesman R, Sleutels T, Postma J, Wissink M, Jetten MSM, Ter Heijne A, Berben T, Welte CU. Mechanisms of extracellular electron transfer in anaerobic methanotrophic archaea. Nat Commun 2024; 15:1477. [PMID: 38368447 PMCID: PMC10874420 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45758-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2023] [Accepted: 02/01/2024] [Indexed: 02/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Anaerobic methanotrophic (ANME) archaea are environmentally important, uncultivated microorganisms that oxidize the potent greenhouse gas methane. During methane oxidation, ANME archaea engage in extracellular electron transfer (EET) with other microbes, metal oxides, and electrodes through unclear mechanisms. Here, we cultivate ANME-2d archaea ('Ca. Methanoperedens') in bioelectrochemical systems and observe strong methane-dependent current (91-93% of total current) associated with high enrichment of 'Ca. Methanoperedens' on the anode (up to 82% of the community), as determined by metagenomics and transmission electron microscopy. Electrochemical and metatranscriptomic analyses suggest that the EET mechanism is similar at various electrode potentials, with the possible involvement of an uncharacterized short-range electron transport protein complex and OmcZ nanowires.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heleen T Ouboter
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525AJ, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Rob Mesman
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525AJ, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Tom Sleutels
- Wetsus, European Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology, Oostergoweg 9, 8911, MA, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
- Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747, AG, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Jelle Postma
- Department of General Instrumentation, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525AJ, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Martijn Wissink
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525AJ, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Mike S M Jetten
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525AJ, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Annemiek Ter Heijne
- Environmental Technology, Wageningen University & Research, Bornse Weilanden 9, 6708 WG, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Tom Berben
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525AJ, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Cornelia U Welte
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525AJ, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
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5
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Dylus D, Altenhoff A, Majidian S, Sedlazeck FJ, Dessimoz C. Inference of phylogenetic trees directly from raw sequencing reads using Read2Tree. Nat Biotechnol 2024; 42:139-147. [PMID: 37081138 PMCID: PMC10791578 DOI: 10.1038/s41587-023-01753-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2022] [Accepted: 03/16/2023] [Indexed: 04/22/2023]
Abstract
Current methods for inference of phylogenetic trees require running complex pipelines at substantial computational and labor costs, with additional constraints in sequencing coverage, assembly and annotation quality, especially for large datasets. To overcome these challenges, we present Read2Tree, which directly processes raw sequencing reads into groups of corresponding genes and bypasses traditional steps in phylogeny inference, such as genome assembly, annotation and all-versus-all sequence comparisons, while retaining accuracy. In a benchmark encompassing a broad variety of datasets, Read2Tree is 10-100 times faster than assembly-based approaches and in most cases more accurate-the exception being when sequencing coverage is high and reference species very distant. Here, to illustrate the broad applicability of the tool, we reconstruct a yeast tree of life of 435 species spanning 590 million years of evolution. We also apply Read2Tree to >10,000 Coronaviridae samples, accurately classifying highly diverse animal samples and near-identical severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 sequences on a single tree. The speed, accuracy and versatility of Read2Tree enable comparative genomics at scale.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Dylus
- Department of Computational Biology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
- F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Immunology, Infectious Disease, and Ophthalmology (I2O), Roche Pharmaceutical Research and Early Development (pRED), Basel, Switzerland
| | - Adrian Altenhoff
- SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Computer Science, ETH, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Sina Majidian
- Department of Computational Biology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Fritz J Sedlazeck
- Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA.
| | - Christophe Dessimoz
- Department of Computational Biology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
- SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland.
- Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, UK.
- Centre for Life's Origins and Evolution, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, UK.
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6
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Sun Y, Wang M, Cao L, Seim I, Zhou L, Chen J, Wang H, Zhong Z, Chen H, Fu L, Li M, Li C, Sun S. Mosaic environment-driven evolution of the deep-sea mussel Gigantidas platifrons bacterial endosymbiont. MICROBIOME 2023; 11:253. [PMID: 37974296 PMCID: PMC10652631 DOI: 10.1186/s40168-023-01695-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2022] [Accepted: 10/11/2023] [Indexed: 11/19/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The within-species diversity of symbiotic bacteria represents an important genetic resource for their environmental adaptation, especially for horizontally transmitted endosymbionts. Although strain-level intraspecies variation has recently been detected in many deep-sea endosymbionts, their ecological role in environmental adaptation, their genome evolution pattern under heterogeneous geochemical environments, and the underlying molecular forces remain unclear. RESULTS Here, we conducted a fine-scale metagenomic analysis of the deep-sea mussel Gigantidas platifrons bacterial endosymbiont collected from distinct habitats: hydrothermal vent and methane seep. Endosymbiont genomes were assembled using a pipeline that distinguishes within-species variation and revealed highly heterogeneous compositions in mussels from different habitats. Phylogenetic analysis separated the assemblies into three distinct environment-linked clades. Their functional differentiation follows a mosaic evolutionary pattern. Core genes, essential for central metabolic function and symbiosis, were conserved across all clades. Clade-specific genes associated with heavy metal resistance, pH homeostasis, and nitrate utilization exhibited signals of accelerated evolution. Notably, transposable elements and plasmids contributed to the genetic reshuffling of the symbiont genomes and likely accelerated adaptive evolution through pseudogenization and the introduction of new genes. CONCLUSIONS The current study uncovers the environment-driven evolution of deep-sea symbionts mediated by mobile genetic elements. Its findings highlight a potentially common and critical role of within-species diversity in animal-microbiome symbioses. Video Abstract.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yan Sun
- CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, and Center of Deep Sea Research, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China
- Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Laoshan Laboratory, Qingdao, 266237, China
| | - Minxiao Wang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, and Center of Deep Sea Research, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China
- Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Laoshan Laboratory, Qingdao, 266237, China
| | - Lei Cao
- CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, and Center of Deep Sea Research, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China
- Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Laoshan Laboratory, Qingdao, 266237, China
| | - Inge Seim
- Integrative Biology Laboratory, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210046, China
- School of Biology and Environmental Science, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, 4000, Australia
| | - Li Zhou
- CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, and Center of Deep Sea Research, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China
- Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Laoshan Laboratory, Qingdao, 266237, China
| | - Jianwei Chen
- BGI Research-Qingdao, BGI, Qingdao, 266555, China
| | - Hao Wang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, and Center of Deep Sea Research, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China
- Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Laoshan Laboratory, Qingdao, 266237, China
| | - Zhaoshan Zhong
- CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, and Center of Deep Sea Research, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China
- Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Laoshan Laboratory, Qingdao, 266237, China
| | - Hao Chen
- CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, and Center of Deep Sea Research, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China
- Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Laoshan Laboratory, Qingdao, 266237, China
| | - Lulu Fu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, and Center of Deep Sea Research, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China
- Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Laoshan Laboratory, Qingdao, 266237, China
| | - Mengna Li
- CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, and Center of Deep Sea Research, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China
- Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Laoshan Laboratory, Qingdao, 266237, China
| | - Chaolun Li
- CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, and Center of Deep Sea Research, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China.
- Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Laoshan Laboratory, Qingdao, 266237, China.
- South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China.
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
| | - Song Sun
- CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, and Center of Deep Sea Research, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China.
- Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Laoshan Laboratory, Qingdao, 266237, China.
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
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7
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Alexander H, Hu SK, Krinos AI, Pachiadaki M, Tully BJ, Neely CJ, Reiter T. Eukaryotic genomes from a global metagenomic data set illuminate trophic modes and biogeography of ocean plankton. mBio 2023; 14:e0167623. [PMID: 37947402 PMCID: PMC10746220 DOI: 10.1128/mbio.01676-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2023] [Accepted: 09/27/2023] [Indexed: 11/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Metagenomics is a powerful method for interpreting the ecological roles and physiological capabilities of mixed microbial communities. Yet, many tools for processing metagenomic data are neither designed to consider eukaryotes nor are they built for an increasing amount of sequence data. EukHeist is an automated pipeline to retrieve eukaryotic and prokaryotic metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from large-scale metagenomic sequence data sets. We developed the EukHeist workflow to specifically process large amounts of both metagenomic and/or metatranscriptomic sequence data in an automated and reproducible fashion. Here, we applied EukHeist to the large-size fraction data (0.8-2,000 µm) from Tara Oceans to recover both eukaryotic and prokaryotic MAGs, which we refer to as TOPAZ (Tara Oceans Particle-Associated MAGs). The TOPAZ MAGs consisted of >900 environmentally relevant eukaryotic MAGs and >4,000 bacterial and archaeal MAGs. The bacterial and archaeal TOPAZ MAGs expand upon the phylogenetic diversity of likely particle- and host-associated taxa. We use these MAGs to demonstrate an approach to infer the putative trophic mode of the recovered eukaryotic MAGs. We also identify ecological cohorts of co-occurring MAGs, which are driven by specific environmental factors and putative host-microbe associations. These data together add to a number of growing resources of environmentally relevant eukaryotic genomic information. Complementary and expanded databases of MAGs, such as those provided through scalable pipelines like EukHeist, stand to advance our understanding of eukaryotic diversity through increased coverage of genomic representatives across the tree of life.IMPORTANCESingle-celled eukaryotes play ecologically significant roles in the marine environment, yet fundamental questions about their biodiversity, ecological function, and interactions remain. Environmental sequencing enables researchers to document naturally occurring protistan communities, without culturing bias, yet metagenomic and metatranscriptomic sequencing approaches cannot separate individual species from communities. To more completely capture the genomic content of mixed protistan populations, we can create bins of sequences that represent the same organism (metagenome-assembled genomes [MAGs]). We developed the EukHeist pipeline, which automates the binning of population-level eukaryotic and prokaryotic genomes from metagenomic reads. We show exciting insight into what protistan communities are present and their trophic roles in the ocean. Scalable computational tools, like EukHeist, may accelerate the identification of meaningful genetic signatures from large data sets and complement researchers' efforts to leverage MAG databases for addressing ecological questions, resolving evolutionary relationships, and discovering potentially novel biodiversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Harriet Alexander
- Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Sarah K. Hu
- Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Arianna I. Krinos
- Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA
- MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering, Cambridge and Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Maria Pachiadaki
- Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Benjamin J. Tully
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Christopher J. Neely
- Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Taylor Reiter
- Population Health and Reproduction, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA
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8
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Walsh LH, Coakley M, Walsh AM, O'Toole PW, Cotter PD. Bioinformatic approaches for studying the microbiome of fermented food. Crit Rev Microbiol 2023; 49:693-725. [PMID: 36287644 DOI: 10.1080/1040841x.2022.2132850] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2022] [Revised: 08/11/2022] [Accepted: 09/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
High-throughput DNA sequencing-based approaches continue to revolutionise our understanding of microbial ecosystems, including those associated with fermented foods. Metagenomic and metatranscriptomic approaches are state-of-the-art biological profiling methods and are employed to investigate a wide variety of characteristics of microbial communities, such as taxonomic membership, gene content and the range and level at which these genes are expressed. Individual groups and consortia of researchers are utilising these approaches to produce increasingly large and complex datasets, representing vast populations of microorganisms. There is a corresponding requirement for the development and application of appropriate bioinformatic tools and pipelines to interpret this data. This review critically analyses the tools and pipelines that have been used or that could be applied to the analysis of metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data from fermented foods. In addition, we critically analyse a number of studies of fermented foods in which these tools have previously been applied, to highlight the insights that these approaches can provide.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liam H Walsh
- Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Cork, Ireland
- School of Microbiology, University College Cork, Ireland
| | - Mairéad Coakley
- Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Cork, Ireland
| | - Aaron M Walsh
- Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Cork, Ireland
| | - Paul W O'Toole
- School of Microbiology, University College Cork, Ireland
- APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, Ireland
| | - Paul D Cotter
- Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Cork, Ireland
- APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, Ireland
- VistaMilk SFI Research Centre, Teagasc, Moorepark, Fermoy, Cork, Ireland
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9
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Chaturvedi A, Li X, Dhandapani V, Marshall H, Kissane S, Cuenca-Cambronero M, Asole G, Calvet F, Ruiz-Romero M, Marangio P, Guigó R, Rago D, Mirbahai L, Eastwood N, Colbourne J, Zhou J, Mallon E, Orsini L. The hologenome of Daphnia magna reveals possible DNA methylation and microbiome-mediated evolution of the host genome. Nucleic Acids Res 2023; 51:9785-9803. [PMID: 37638757 PMCID: PMC10570034 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkad685] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2022] [Revised: 07/07/2023] [Accepted: 08/09/2023] [Indexed: 08/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Properties that make organisms ideal laboratory models in developmental and medical research are often the ones that also make them less representative of wild relatives. The waterflea Daphnia magna is an exception, by both sharing many properties with established laboratory models and being a keystone species, a sentinel species for assessing water quality, an indicator of environmental change and an established ecotoxicology model. Yet, Daphnia's full potential has not been fully exploited because of the challenges associated with assembling and annotating its gene-rich genome. Here, we present the first hologenome of Daphnia magna, consisting of a chromosomal-level assembly of the D. magna genome and the draft assembly of its metagenome. By sequencing and mapping transcriptomes from exposures to environmental conditions and from developmental morphological landmarks, we expand the previously annotates gene set for this species. We also provide evidence for the potential role of gene-body DNA-methylation as a mutagen mediating genome evolution. For the first time, our study shows that the gut microbes provide resistance to commonly used antibiotics and virulence factors, potentially mediating Daphnia's environmental-driven rapid evolution. Key findings in this study improve our understanding of the contribution of DNA methylation and gut microbiota to genome evolution in response to rapidly changing environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anurag Chaturvedi
- Environmental Genomics Group, School of Biosciences, and Institute for Interdisciplinary Data Science and AI, the University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - Xiaojing Li
- Environmental Genomics Group, School of Biosciences, and Institute for Interdisciplinary Data Science and AI, the University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - Vignesh Dhandapani
- Environmental Genomics Group, School of Biosciences, and Institute for Interdisciplinary Data Science and AI, the University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - Hollie Marshall
- Environmental Genomics Group, School of Biosciences, and Institute for Interdisciplinary Data Science and AI, the University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
- Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, the University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
| | - Stephen Kissane
- Environmental Genomics Group, School of Biosciences, and Institute for Interdisciplinary Data Science and AI, the University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - Maria Cuenca-Cambronero
- Environmental Genomics Group, School of Biosciences, and Institute for Interdisciplinary Data Science and AI, the University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
- Aquatic Ecology Group, University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia, 08500 Vic, Spain
| | - Giovanni Asole
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Ferriol Calvet
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Marina Ruiz-Romero
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Paolo Marangio
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Roderic Guigó
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Daria Rago
- Environmental Genomics Group, School of Biosciences, and Institute for Interdisciplinary Data Science and AI, the University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - Leda Mirbahai
- Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
| | - Niamh Eastwood
- Environmental Genomics Group, School of Biosciences, and Institute for Interdisciplinary Data Science and AI, the University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - John K Colbourne
- Environmental Genomics Group, School of Biosciences, and Institute for Interdisciplinary Data Science and AI, the University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - Jiarui Zhou
- Environmental Genomics Group, School of Biosciences, and Institute for Interdisciplinary Data Science and AI, the University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - Eamonn Mallon
- Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, the University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
| | - Luisa Orsini
- Environmental Genomics Group, School of Biosciences, and Institute for Interdisciplinary Data Science and AI, the University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
- The Alan Turing Institute, British Library, London NW1 2DB, UK
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10
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Reynolds R, Hyun S, Tully B, Bien J, Levine NM. Identification of microbial metabolic functional guilds from large genomic datasets. Front Microbiol 2023; 14:1197329. [PMID: 37455725 PMCID: PMC10348482 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1197329] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2023] [Accepted: 05/26/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Heterotrophic microbes play an important role in the Earth System as key drivers of major biogeochemical cycles. Specifically, the consumption rate of organic matter is set by the interaction between diverse microbial communities and the chemical and physical environment in which they reside. Modeling these dynamics requires reducing the complexity of microbial communities and linking directly with biogeochemical functions. Microbial metabolic functional guilds provide one approach for reducing microbial complexity and incorporating microbial biogeochemical functions into models. However, we lack a way to identify these guilds. In this study, we present a method for defining metabolic functional guilds from annotated genomes, which are derived from both uncultured and cultured organisms. This method utilizes an Aspect Bernoulli (AB) model and was tested on three large genomic datasets with 1,733-3,840 genomes each. Ecologically relevant microbial metabolic functional guilds were identified including guilds related to DMSP degradation, dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonia, and motile copiotrophy. This method presents a way to generate hypotheses about functions co-occurring within individual microbes without relying on cultured representatives. Applying the concept of metabolic functional guilds to environmental samples will provide new insight into the role that heterotrophic microbial communities play in setting rates of carbon cycling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryan Reynolds
- Department of Marine and Environmental Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Sangwon Hyun
- Department of Data Sciences and Operations, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Benjamin Tully
- Department of Marine and Environmental Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
- Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Jacob Bien
- Department of Data Sciences and Operations, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Naomi M. Levine
- Department of Marine and Environmental Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
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11
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Orellana LH, Krüger K, Sidhu C, Amann R. Comparing genomes recovered from time-series metagenomes using long- and short-read sequencing technologies. MICROBIOME 2023; 11:105. [PMID: 37179340 PMCID: PMC10182627 DOI: 10.1186/s40168-023-01557-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2022] [Accepted: 04/26/2023] [Indexed: 05/15/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Over the past years, sequencing technologies have expanded our ability to examine novel microbial metabolisms and diversity previously obscured by isolation approaches. Long-read sequencing promises to revolutionize the metagenomic field and recover less fragmented genomes from environmental samples. Nonetheless, how to best benefit from long-read sequencing and whether long-read sequencing can provide recovered genomes of similar characteristics as short-read approaches remains unclear. RESULTS We recovered metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from the free-living fraction at four-time points during a spring bloom in the North Sea. The taxonomic composition of all MAGs recovered was comparable between technologies. However, differences consisted of higher sequencing depth for contigs and higher genome population diversity in short-read compared to long-read metagenomes. When pairing population genomes recovered from both sequencing approaches that shared ≥ 99% average nucleotide identity, long-read MAGs were composed of fewer contigs, a higher N50, and a higher number of predicted genes when compared to short-read MAGs. Moreover, 88% of the total long-read MAGs carried a 16S rRNA gene compared to only 23% of MAGs recovered from short-read metagenomes. Relative abundances for population genomes recovered using both technologies were similar, although disagreements were observed for high and low GC content MAGs. CONCLUSIONS Our results highlight that short-read technologies recovered more MAGs and a higher number of species than long-read due to an overall higher sequencing depth. Long-read samples produced higher quality MAGs and similar species composition compared to short-read sequencing. Differences in the GC content recovered by each sequencing technology resulted in divergences in the diversity recovered and relative abundance of MAGs within the GC content boundaries.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luis H Orellana
- Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Celsiusstraße 1, Bremen, 28359, Germany.
| | - Karen Krüger
- Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Celsiusstraße 1, Bremen, 28359, Germany
| | - Chandni Sidhu
- Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Celsiusstraße 1, Bremen, 28359, Germany
| | - Rudolf Amann
- Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Celsiusstraße 1, Bremen, 28359, Germany
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12
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Seyler LM, Kraus EA, McLean C, Spear JR, Templeton AS, Schrenk MO. An untargeted exometabolomics approach to characterize dissolved organic matter in groundwater of the Samail Ophiolite. Front Microbiol 2023; 14:1093372. [PMID: 36970670 PMCID: PMC10033605 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1093372] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2022] [Accepted: 01/23/2023] [Indexed: 03/11/2023] Open
Abstract
The process of serpentinization supports life on Earth and gives rise to the habitability of other worlds in our Solar System. While numerous studies have provided clues to the survival strategies of microbial communities in serpentinizing environments on the modern Earth, characterizing microbial activity in such environments remains challenging due to low biomass and extreme conditions. Here, we used an untargeted metabolomics approach to characterize dissolved organic matter in groundwater in the Samail Ophiolite, the largest and best characterized example of actively serpentinizing uplifted ocean crust and mantle. We found that dissolved organic matter composition is strongly correlated with both fluid type and microbial community composition, and that the fluids that were most influenced by serpentinization contained the greatest number of unique compounds, none of which could be identified using the current metabolite databases. Using metabolomics in conjunction with metagenomic data, we detected numerous products and intermediates of microbial metabolic processes and identified potential biosignatures of microbial activity, including pigments, porphyrins, quinones, fatty acids, and metabolites involved in methanogenesis. Metabolomics techniques like the ones used in this study may be used to further our understanding of life in serpentinizing environments, and aid in the identification of biosignatures that can be used to search for life in serpentinizing systems on other worlds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lauren M. Seyler
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United States
- Biology Program, School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Stockton University, Galloway, NJ, United States
- Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, Seattle, WA, United States
- *Correspondence: Lauren M. Seyler,
| | - Emily A. Kraus
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, United States
- Department of Environmental Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States
| | - Craig McLean
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States
| | - John R. Spear
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, United States
| | - Alexis S. Templeton
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States
| | - Matthew O. Schrenk
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United States
- Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United States
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13
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Metagenome-Assembled Genome of an Alphaproteobacterium Isolated from an HetDA Enrichment from the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Microbiol Resour Announc 2023; 12:e0059522. [PMID: 36719246 PMCID: PMC9933672 DOI: 10.1128/mra.00595-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Here, we present HetDA_MAG_SS10, a metagenome-assembled genome (MAG) from an enrichment of a heterocystous diazotroph originally living in association with Trichodesmium spp. obtained near Station ALOHA in the North Pacific Ocean. HetDA_MAG_SS10, an alphaproteobacterium in the order Micavibrionales, is proposed to be photoheterotrophic via rhodopsin and has the potential for dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) demethylation.
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14
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Metagenome-Assembled Genome of a Novel Cyclobacteriaceae Epibiont of a Heterotrophic Diazotroph. Microbiol Resour Announc 2023; 12:e0059422. [PMID: 36688647 PMCID: PMC9933675 DOI: 10.1128/mra.00594-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Here, we describe the metagenome-assembled genome (MAG) HetDA_MAG_SS2, in the family Cyclobacteriaceae. It was found in association with a HetDA cyanobiont isolated from a Station ALOHA Trichodesmium colony. Annotation suggests that HetDA_MAG_SS2 is a chemoorganoheterotroph with the potential for lithoheterotrophy, containing genes for aerobic respiration, mixed acid fermentation, dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium, and sulfide oxidation.
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15
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Metagenome-Assembled Genome HetDA_MAG_MH13 of the Family Devosiaceae, from a Marine N2-fixing Cyanobacterial Enrichment Culture. Microbiol Resour Announc 2023; 12:e0045222. [PMID: 36700636 PMCID: PMC9933697 DOI: 10.1128/mra.00452-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Here, we present a draft genome in the order Rhizobiales and family Devosiaceae. This draft genome comes from an enrichment of a heterocystous, cyanobacterial diazotroph (HetDA) that was originally living in association with Trichodesmium species. This Rhizobiales organism is proposed to be an anoxygenic phototroph capable of dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonia (DNRA).
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16
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Genome Sequence of a Heterocystous Diazotroph Isolated from a Trichodesmium Consortium from the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Microbiol Resour Announc 2023; 12:e0045322. [PMID: 36507679 PMCID: PMC9872640 DOI: 10.1128/mra.00453-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Diazotrophic cyanobacteria play a vital role in the nitrogen influx of the global marine ecosystem. In July 2010, colonies of Trichodesmium spp. were picked near Station ALOHA in the oligotrophic North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, and a novel heterocystous diazotroph (strain HetDA_MAG_MS3) belonging to the genus Rivularia was found living in close association; it was cultured and sequenced.
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17
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Metagenome-Assembled Genome of a Cyclobacteriaceae Bacterium, HetDA_MAG_MS6, Isolated from a Trichodesmium Consortium from Station ALOHA. Microbiol Resour Announc 2023; 12:e0045422. [PMID: 36515503 PMCID: PMC9872706 DOI: 10.1128/mra.00454-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Here, we describe the metagenome-assembled genome (MAG) HetDA_MAG_MS6. HetDA_MAG_MS6 was obtained from an enrichment of the heterocystous diazotroph HetDA, which was isolated near Station ALOHA. The MAG was placed in the Cyclobacteriaceae family and is predicted to be a chemoorganoheterotroph with the potential for ammonia uptake, phosphonate transport, and sulfolipid biosynthesis.
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18
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Genome Sequence of the Euphotic Hawaiian Gammaproteobacterium HetDA_MAG_MS8, in the Order Nevskiales, Family Oceanococcaceae, Genus Oceanococcus. Microbiol Resour Announc 2023; 12:e0059222. [PMID: 36515538 PMCID: PMC9872600 DOI: 10.1128/mra.00592-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
We present a metagenome-assembled genome (MAG), HetDA_MAG_MS8, that was determined to be unique via relative evolutionary divergence (RED) scores and average nucleotide identity (ANI) values. HetDA_MAG_MS8 is in the order Nevskiales, genus Oceanococcus, and was assembled from a heterocytous cyanobiont enrichment from the Hawaii Ocean Time Series. HetDA_MAG_MS8 is predicted to be a facultative, aerobic, anoxygenic photolithoheterotroph that has the potential for sulfide oxidation and dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) synthesis.
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19
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Suarez C, Hackl T, Wilen BM, Persson F, Hagelia P, Jetten MSM, Dalcin Martins P. Novel and unusual genes for nitrogen and metal cycling in Planctomycetota- and KSB1-affiliated metagenome-assembled genomes reconstructed from a marine subsea tunnel. FEMS Microbiol Lett 2023; 370:fnad049. [PMID: 37291701 PMCID: PMC10732223 DOI: 10.1093/femsle/fnad049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2023] [Revised: 06/02/2023] [Accepted: 06/07/2023] [Indexed: 06/10/2023] Open
Abstract
The Oslofjord subsea road tunnel is a unique environment in which the typically anoxic marine deep subsurface is exposed to oxygen. Concrete biodeterioration and steel corrosion in the tunnel have been linked to the growth of iron- and manganese-oxidizing biofilms in areas of saline water seepage. Surprisingly, previous 16S rRNA gene surveys of biofilm samples revealed microbial communities dominated by sequences affiliated with nitrogen-cycling microorganisms. This study aimed to identify microbial genomes with metabolic potential for novel nitrogen- and metal-cycling reactions, representing biofilm microorganisms that could link these cycles and play a role in concrete biodeterioration. We reconstructed 33 abundant, novel metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) affiliated with the phylum Planctomycetota and the candidate phylum KSB1. We identified novel and unusual genes and gene clusters in these MAGs related to anaerobic ammonium oxidation, nitrite oxidation, and other nitrogen-cycling reactions. Additionally, 26 of 33 MAGs also had the potential for iron, manganese, and arsenite cycling, suggesting that bacteria represented by these genomes might couple these reactions. Our results expand the diversity of microorganisms putatively involved in nitrogen and metal cycling, and contribute to our understanding of potential biofilm impacts on built infrastructure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carolina Suarez
- Division of Water Resources Engineering, Faculty of Engineering LTH, Lund University, Lund 221 00, Sweden
| | - Thomas Hackl
- Microbial Ecology Cluster, GELIFES, University of Groningen, Groningen 9747 AG, Netherlands
| | - Britt-Marie Wilen
- Division of Water Environment Technology, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg 412 96, Sweden
| | - Frank Persson
- Division of Water Environment Technology, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg 412 96, Sweden
| | - Per Hagelia
- Construction Division, The Norwegian Public Roads, Administration, Oslo 0667, Norway
| | - Mike S M Jetten
- Department of Microbiology, RIBES, Radboud University, Nijmegen 6525 AJ, Netherlands
| | - Paula Dalcin Martins
- Microbial Ecology Cluster, GELIFES, University of Groningen, Groningen 9747 AG, Netherlands
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20
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Wang Z, Huang P, You R, Sun F, Zhu S. MetaBinner: a high-performance and stand-alone ensemble binning method to recover individual genomes from complex microbial communities. Genome Biol 2023; 24:1. [PMID: 36609515 PMCID: PMC9817263 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-022-02832-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2021] [Accepted: 12/05/2022] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Binning aims to recover microbial genomes from metagenomic data. For complex metagenomic communities, the available binning methods are far from satisfactory, which usually do not fully use different types of features and important biological knowledge. We developed a novel ensemble binner, MetaBinner, which generates component results with multiple types of features by k-means and uses single-copy gene information for initialization. It then employs a two-stage ensemble strategy based on single-copy genes to integrate the component results efficiently and effectively. Extensive experimental results on three large-scale simulated datasets and one real-world dataset demonstrate that MetaBinner outperforms the state-of-the-art binners significantly.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ziye Wang
- grid.8547.e0000 0001 0125 2443The Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, China ,grid.8547.e0000 0001 0125 2443School of Mathematical Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Pingqin Huang
- grid.8547.e0000 0001 0125 2443School of Computer Science and Shanghai Key Lab of Intelligent Information Processing, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Ronghui You
- grid.8547.e0000 0001 0125 2443The Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Fengzhu Sun
- grid.42505.360000 0001 2156 6853Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
| | - Shanfeng Zhu
- grid.8547.e0000 0001 0125 2443The Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, China ,grid.513236.0Shanghai Qi Zhi Institute, Shanghai, China ,grid.419897.a0000 0004 0369 313XKey Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience and Brain-Inspired Intelligence (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China ,grid.8547.e0000 0001 0125 2443MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science and Shanghai Institute of Artificial Intelligence Algorithms, Fudan University, Shanghai, China ,Zhangjiang Fudan International Innovation Center, Shanghai, China
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21
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Pelletier MC, Charpentier M. Assessing the relative importance of stressors to the benthic index, M-AMBI: An example from U.S. estuaries. MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN 2023; 186:114456. [PMID: 36502776 PMCID: PMC9813808 DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.114456] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2022] [Revised: 10/25/2022] [Accepted: 11/28/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
M-AMBI, a multivariate benthic index, has been used by European and American (U.S.) authorities to assess estuarine and coastal health and has been used in scientific studies throughout the world. It has been shown to be related to multiple pressures and stressors, but the relative importance of individual stressors within a multiple stressor context has not generally been assessed. In this study, we assembled data collected between 1999 and 2015 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency using consistent methods. These data included sediment and water quality measures and benthic invertebrate data which were used to calculate M-AMBI. We further assembled watersheds for all US estuaries with benthic data and calculated land use metrics. Random forest (RF) was used to identify those variables most strongly related to M-AMBI. Because RF is a compilation of multiple, nonlinear models, we then assessed which of these variables had a direct relationship with M-AMBI. The resulting variables were then assessed using RF to identify the subsets of variables that produced an effective and parsimonious model. This process was conducted at the national and ecoregional scale and the variables identified as being most important to predict M-AMBI were compared with literature reports of ecological patterns in a given area. At the national scale, better condition was correlated with clearer waters, lower amounts of agriculture in the watershed, and lower carbon and metal concentrations in estuarine sediments. Other stressors were identified as being important at the ecoregional scale, although sediment metal concentrations and watershed agriculture were identified as being important in most ecoregions. Our results suggest that this technique is useful to identify the most important variables impacting M-AMBI at broad spatial scales, even when the percentage of sites in Bad or Poor condition is low. This technique also provides an initial identification of important stressors that can be used to target more intensive local studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marguerite C Pelletier
- Atlantic Coastal Environmental Sciences Division, US EPA, ORD, CEMM, Narragansett, RI, USA.
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22
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Actin cytoskeleton and complex cell architecture in an Asgard archaeon. Nature 2023; 613:332-339. [PMID: 36544020 PMCID: PMC9834061 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05550-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 45.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2022] [Accepted: 11/10/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Asgard archaea are considered to be the closest known relatives of eukaryotes. Their genomes contain hundreds of eukaryotic signature proteins (ESPs), which inspired hypotheses on the evolution of the eukaryotic cell1-3. A role of ESPs in the formation of an elaborate cytoskeleton and complex cellular structures has been postulated4-6, but never visualized. Here we describe a highly enriched culture of 'Candidatus Lokiarchaeum ossiferum', a member of the Asgard phylum, which thrives anaerobically at 20 °C on organic carbon sources. It divides every 7-14 days, reaches cell densities of up to 5 × 107 cells per ml and has a significantly larger genome compared with the single previously cultivated Asgard strain7. ESPs represent 5% of its protein-coding genes, including four actin homologues. We imaged the enrichment culture using cryo-electron tomography, identifying 'Ca. L. ossiferum' cells on the basis of characteristic expansion segments of their ribosomes. Cells exhibited coccoid cell bodies and a network of branched protrusions with frequent constrictions. The cell envelope consists of a single membrane and complex surface structures. A long-range cytoskeleton extends throughout the cell bodies, protrusions and constrictions. The twisted double-stranded architecture of the filaments is consistent with F-actin. Immunostaining indicates that the filaments comprise Lokiactin-one of the most highly conserved ESPs in Asgard archaea. We propose that a complex actin-based cytoskeleton predated the emergence of the first eukaryotes and was a crucial feature in the evolution of the Asgard phylum by scaffolding elaborate cellular structures.
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23
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Baltoumas FA, Karatzas E, Paez-Espino D, Venetsianou NK, Aplakidou E, Oulas A, Finn RD, Ovchinnikov S, Pafilis E, Kyrpides NC, Pavlopoulos GA. Exploring microbial functional biodiversity at the protein family level-From metagenomic sequence reads to annotated protein clusters. FRONTIERS IN BIOINFORMATICS 2023; 3:1157956. [PMID: 36959975 PMCID: PMC10029925 DOI: 10.3389/fbinf.2023.1157956] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2023] [Accepted: 02/21/2023] [Indexed: 03/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Metagenomics has enabled accessing the genetic repertoire of natural microbial communities. Metagenome shotgun sequencing has become the method of choice for studying and classifying microorganisms from various environments. To this end, several methods have been developed to process and analyze the sequence data from raw reads to end-products such as predicted protein sequences or families. In this article, we provide a thorough review to simplify such processes and discuss the alternative methodologies that can be followed in order to explore biodiversity at the protein family level. We provide details for analysis tools and we comment on their scalability as well as their advantages and disadvantages. Finally, we report the available data repositories and recommend various approaches for protein family annotation related to phylogenetic distribution, structure prediction and metadata enrichment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fotis A. Baltoumas
- Institute for Fundamental Biomedical Research, BSRC “Alexander Fleming”, Vari, Greece
- *Correspondence: Fotis A. Baltoumas, ; Nikos C. Kyrpides, ; Georgios A. Pavlopoulos,
| | - Evangelos Karatzas
- Institute for Fundamental Biomedical Research, BSRC “Alexander Fleming”, Vari, Greece
| | - David Paez-Espino
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, DOE Joint Genome Institute, Berkeley, CA, United States
| | - Nefeli K. Venetsianou
- Institute for Fundamental Biomedical Research, BSRC “Alexander Fleming”, Vari, Greece
| | - Eleni Aplakidou
- Institute for Fundamental Biomedical Research, BSRC “Alexander Fleming”, Vari, Greece
| | - Anastasis Oulas
- The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - Robert D. Finn
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Sergey Ovchinnikov
- John Harvard Distinguished Science Fellowship Program, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States
| | - Evangelos Pafilis
- Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture (IMBBC), Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Heraklion, Greece
| | - Nikos C. Kyrpides
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, DOE Joint Genome Institute, Berkeley, CA, United States
- *Correspondence: Fotis A. Baltoumas, ; Nikos C. Kyrpides, ; Georgios A. Pavlopoulos,
| | - Georgios A. Pavlopoulos
- Institute for Fundamental Biomedical Research, BSRC “Alexander Fleming”, Vari, Greece
- Center of New Biotechnologies and Precision Medicine, Department of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
- Hellenic Army Academy, Vari, Greece
- *Correspondence: Fotis A. Baltoumas, ; Nikos C. Kyrpides, ; Georgios A. Pavlopoulos,
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24
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Metabolic Potential of Microbial Communities in the Hypersaline Sediments of the Bonneville Salt Flats. mSystems 2022; 7:e0084622. [PMID: 36377900 PMCID: PMC9765009 DOI: 10.1128/msystems.00846-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The Bonneville Salt Flats (BSF) appear to be entirely desolate when viewed from above, but they host rich microbial communities just below the surface salt crust. In this study, we investigated the metabolic potential of the BSF microbial ecosystem. The predicted and measured metabolic activities provide new insights into the ecosystem functions of evaporite landscapes and are an important analog for potential subsurface microbial ecosystems on ancient and modern Mars. Hypersaline and evaporite systems have been investigated previously as astrobiological analogs for Mars and other salty celestial bodies, but these studies have generally focused on aquatic systems and cultivation-dependent approaches. Here, we present an ecosystem-level examination of metabolic pathways within the shallow subsurface of evaporites. We detected aerobic and anaerobic respiration as well as methanogenesis in BSF sediments. Metagenome-assembled genomes of diverse bacteria and archaea encode a remarkable diversity of metabolic pathways, including those associated with carbon fixation, carbon monoxide oxidation, acetogenesis, methanogenesis, sulfide oxidation, denitrification, and nitrogen fixation. These results demonstrate the potential for multiple energy sources and metabolic pathways in BSF and highlight the possibility for vibrant microbial ecosystems in the shallow subsurface of evaporites. IMPORTANCE The Bonneville Salt Flats is a unique ecosystem created from 10,000 years of desiccation and serves as an important natural laboratory for the investigation of the habitability of salty, halite, and gypsum-rich environments. Here, we show that gypsum-rich mineral deposits host a surprising diversity of organisms and appear to play a key role in stimulating the microbial cycling of sulfur and nitrogen compounds. This work highlights how diverse microbial communities within the shallow subsurface sediments are capable of maintaining an active and sustainable ecosystem, even though the surface salt crust appears to be completely devoid of life.
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Dylus D, Altenhoff A, Majidian S, Sedlazeck FJ, Dessimoz C. Read2Tree: scalable and accurate phylogenetic trees from raw reads. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2022:2022.04.18.488678. [PMID: 36561179 PMCID: PMC9774205 DOI: 10.1101/2022.04.18.488678] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
The inference of phylogenetic trees is foundational to biology. However, state-of-the-art phylogenomics requires running complex pipelines, at significant computational and labour costs, with additional constraints in sequencing coverage, assembly and annotation quality. To overcome these challenges, we present Read2Tree, which directly processes raw sequencing reads into groups of corresponding genes. In a benchmark encompassing a broad variety of datasets, our assembly-free approach was 10-100x faster than conventional approaches, and in most cases more accurate-the exception being when sequencing coverage was high and reference species very distant. To illustrate the broad applicability of the tool, we reconstructed a yeast tree of life of 435 species spanning 590 million years of evolution. Applied to Coronaviridae samples, Read2Tree accurately classified highly diverse animal samples and near-identical SARS-CoV-2 sequences on a single tree-thereby exhibiting remarkable breadth and depth. The speed, accuracy, and versatility of Read2Tree enables comparative genomics at scale.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Dylus
- Department of Computational Biology, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- present address: F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Immunology, Infectious Disease, and Ophthalmology (I2O), Roche Pharmaceutical Research and Early Development (pRED), Basel, 4070, Switzerland
- SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Adrian Altenhoff
- SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Computer Science, ETH, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Sina Majidian
- Department of Computational Biology, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Fritz J Sedlazeck
- Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, 77005, USA
| | - Christophe Dessimoz
- Department of Computational Biology, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Computer Science, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
- Centre for Life’s Origins and Evolution, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London WC1E, UK
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Wu Z, Wang Y, Zeng J, Zhou Y. Constructing metagenome-assembled genomes for almost all components in a real bacterial consortium for binning benchmarking. BMC Genomics 2022; 23:746. [DOI: 10.1186/s12864-022-08967-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2022] [Accepted: 10/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Background
So far, a lot of binning approaches have been intensively developed for untangling metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) and evaluated by two main strategies. The strategy by comparison to known genomes prevails over the other strategy by using single-copy genes. However, there is still no dataset with all known genomes for a real (not simulated) bacterial consortium yet.
Results
Here, we continue investigating the real bacterial consortium F1RT enriched and sequenced by us previously, considering the high possibility to unearth all MAGs, due to its low complexity. The improved F1RT metagenome reassembled by metaSPAdes here utilizes about 98.62% of reads, and a series of analyses for the remaining reads suggests that the possibility of containing other low-abundance organisms in F1RT is greatly low, demonstrating that almost all MAGs are successfully assembled. Then, 4 isolates are obtained and individually sequenced. Based on the 4 isolate genomes and the entire metagenome, an elaborate pipeline is then in-house developed to construct all F1RT MAGs. A series of assessments extensively prove the high reliability of the herein reconstruction. Next, our findings further show that this dataset harbors several properties challenging for binning and thus is suitable to compare advanced binning tools available now or benchmark novel binners. Using this dataset, 8 advanced binning algorithms are assessed, giving useful insights for developing novel approaches. In addition, compared with our previous study, two novel MAGs termed FC8 and FC9 are discovered here, and 7 MAGs are solidly unearthed for species without any available genomes.
Conclusion
To our knowledge, it is the first time to construct a dataset with almost all known MAGs for a not simulated consortium. We hope that this dataset will be used as a routine toolkit to complement mock datasets for evaluating binning methods to further facilitate binning and metagenomic studies in the future.
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Kenkel CD, Smith J, Hubbard KA, Chadwick C, Lorenzen N, Tatters AO, Caron DA. Reduced representation sequencing accurately quantifies relative abundance and reveals population-level variation in Pseudo-nitzschia spp. HARMFUL ALGAE 2022; 118:102314. [PMID: 36195429 PMCID: PMC9869635 DOI: 10.1016/j.hal.2022.102314] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2022] [Revised: 08/16/2022] [Accepted: 08/22/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Certain species within the genus Pseudo-nitzschia are able to produce the neurotoxin domoic acid (DA), which can cause illness in humans, mass-mortality of marine animals, and closure of commercial and recreational shellfisheries during toxic events. Understanding and forecasting blooms of these harmful species is a primary management goal. However, accurately predicting the onset and severity of bloom events remains difficult, in part because the underlying drivers of bloom formation have not been fully resolved. Furthermore, Pseudo-nitzschia species often co-occur, and recent work suggests that the genetic composition of a Pseudo-nitzschia bloom may be a better predictor of toxicity than prevailing environmental conditions. We developed a novel next-generation sequencing assay using restriction site-associated DNA (2b-RAD) genotyping and applied it to mock Pseudo-nitzschia communities generated by mixing cultures of different species in known abundances. On average, 94% of the variance in observed species abundance was explained by the expected abundance. In addition, the false positive rate was low (0.45% on average) and unrelated to read depth, and false negatives were never observed. Application of this method to environmental DNA samples collected during natural Pseudo-nitzschia spp. bloom events in Southern California revealed that increases in DA were associated with increases in the relative abundance of P. australis. Although the absolute correlation across time-points was weak, an independent species fingerprinting assay (Automated Ribosomal Intergenic Spacer Analysis) supported this and identified other potentially toxic species. Finally, we assessed population-level genomic variation by mining SNPs from the environmental 2bRAD dataset. Consistent shifts in allele frequencies in P. pungens and P. subpacifica were detected between high and low DA years, suggesting that different intraspecific variants may be associated with prevailing environmental conditions or the presence of DA. Taken together, this method presents a potentially cost-effective and high-throughput approach for studies aiming to evaluate both population and species dynamics in mixed samples.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carly D Kenkel
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, 3616 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
| | - Jayme Smith
- Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, 3535 Harbor Boulevard, Suite 110, Costa Mesa, CA, 92626, USA
| | - Katherine A Hubbard
- Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission-Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWC-FWRI), 100 8th Ave. SE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701, USA; Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 266 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA
| | - Christina Chadwick
- Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission-Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWC-FWRI), 100 8th Ave. SE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701, USA
| | - Nico Lorenzen
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, 3616 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
| | - Avery O Tatters
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Gulf Ecosystem Measurement and Modeling Division, 1 Sabine Island Drive, Gulf Breeze, FL, 32561, USA
| | - David A Caron
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, 3616 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
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Insect Gut Isolate Pseudomonas sp. Strain Nvir Degrades the Toxic Plant Metabolite Nitropropionic Acid. Appl Environ Microbiol 2022; 88:e0071922. [PMID: 36154165 PMCID: PMC9552603 DOI: 10.1128/aem.00719-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Nitropropionic acid (NPA) is a widely distributed naturally occurring nitroaliphatic toxin produced by leguminous plants and fungi. The Southern green shield bug feeds on leguminous plants and shows no symptoms of intoxication. Likewise, its gut-associated microorganisms are subjected to high levels of this toxic compound. In this study, we isolated a bacterium from this insect's gut system, classified as Pseudomonas sp. strain Nvir, that was highly resistant to NPA and was fully degrading it to inorganic nitrogen compounds and carbon dioxide. In order to understand the metabolic fate of NPA, we traced the fate of all atoms of the NPA molecule using isotope tracing experiments with [15N]NPA and [1-13C]NPA, in addition to experiments with uniformly 13C-labeled biomass that was used to follow the incorporation of 12C atoms from [U-12C]NPA into tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates. With the help of genomics and transcriptomics, we uncovered the isolate’s NPA degradation pathway, which involves a putative propionate-3-nitronate monooxygenase responsible for the first step of NPA degradation. The discovered protein shares only 32% sequence identity with previously described propionate-3-nitronate monooxygenases. Finally, we advocate that NPA-degrading bacteria might find application in biotechnology, and their unique enzymes might be used in biosynthesis, bioremediation, and in dealing with postharvest NPA contamination in economically important products. IMPORTANCE Plants have evolved sophisticated chemical defense mechanisms, such as the production of plant toxins in order to deter herbivores. One example of such a plant toxin is nitropropionic acid (NPA), which is produced by leguminous plants and also by certain fungi. In this project, we have isolated a bacterium from the intestinal tract of a pest insect, the Southern green shield bug, that is able to degrade NPA. Through a multiomics approach, we identified the respective metabolic pathway and determined the metabolic fate of all atoms of the NPA molecule. In addition, we provide a new genetic marker that can be used for genome mining toward NPA degradation. The discovery of degradation pathways of plant toxins by environmental bacteria opens new possibilities for pretreatment of contaminated food and feed sources and characterization of understudied enzymes allows their broad application in biotechnology.
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Centurion VB, Campanaro S, Basile A, Treu L, Oliveira VM. Microbiome structure in biofilms from a volcanic island in Maritime Antarctica investigated by genome-centric metagenomics and metatranscriptomics. Microbiol Res 2022; 265:127197. [PMID: 36174355 DOI: 10.1016/j.micres.2022.127197] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2021] [Revised: 09/08/2022] [Accepted: 09/13/2022] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
Antarctica is the coldest and driest continent on Earth, characterized by polyextreme environmental conditions, where species adapted form complex networks of interactions. Microbial communities growing in these harsh environments can form biofilms that help the associated species to survive and thrive. A rich body of knowledge describes environmental biofilm communities; however, most studies have focused on dominant community members rather than functional complexity and metabolic potential. To overcome these limitations, the present study used genome-centric metagenomics to describe two biofilm samples subjected to different temperature collected in Deception Island, Maritime Antarctica. The results unraveled a complex biofilm microbiome represented by 180 metagenome-assembled genomes. The potential metabolic interactions were investigated using metabolic flux balance analysis and revealed that purple bacteria are the community members with the highest correlations with other bacteria. Due to their predicted mixotrophic behavior, they may play a crucial role in the microbiome, likely supporting the heterotrophic species in biofilms. Metatranscriptomics results revealed that the chaperone system and proteins counteracting ROS and toxic compounds have a major role in maintaining bacterial cell homeostasis in sediments of volcanic origin.
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Affiliation(s)
- V B Centurion
- Microbial Resources Division, Research Center for Chemistry, Biology, and Agriculture (CPQBA), State University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Paulínia, SP CEP 13081-970, Brazil; Biology Institute, State University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Campinas, SP CEP 13083-862, Brazil.
| | - S Campanaro
- Department of Biology, University of Padova, Via U. Bassi 58/b, 35121 Padua, Italy; CRIBI Biotechnology Center, University of Padova, 35131 Padua, Italy.
| | - A Basile
- Department of Biology, University of Padova, Via U. Bassi 58/b, 35121 Padua, Italy.
| | - L Treu
- Department of Biology, University of Padova, Via U. Bassi 58/b, 35121 Padua, Italy.
| | - V M Oliveira
- Microbial Resources Division, Research Center for Chemistry, Biology, and Agriculture (CPQBA), State University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Paulínia, SP CEP 13081-970, Brazil.
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Abstract
Metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) represent individual genomes recovered from metagenomic data. MAGs are extremely useful to analyze uncultured microbial genomic diversity, as well as to characterize associated functional and metabolic potential in natural environments. Recent computational developments have considerably improved MAG reconstruction but also emphasized several limitations, such as the nonbinning of sequence regions with repetitions or distinct nucleotidic composition. Different assembly and binning strategies are often used; however, it still remains unclear which assembly strategy, in combination with which binning approach, offers the best performance for MAG recovery. Several workflows have been proposed in order to reconstruct MAGs, but users are usually limited to single-metagenome assembly or need to manually define sets of metagenomes to coassemble prior to genome binning. Here, we present MAGNETO, an automated workflow dedicated to MAG reconstruction, which includes a fully-automated coassembly step informed by optimal clustering of metagenomic distances, and implements complementary genome binning strategies, for improving MAG recovery. MAGNETO is implemented as a Snakemake workflow and is available at: https://gitlab.univ-nantes.fr/bird_pipeline_registry/magneto. IMPORTANCE Genome-resolved metagenomics has led to the discovery of previously untapped biodiversity within the microbial world. As the development of computational methods for the recovery of genomes from metagenomes continues, existing strategies need to be evaluated and compared to eventually lead to standardized computational workflows. In this study, we compared commonly used assembly and binning strategies and assessed their performance using both simulated and real metagenomic data sets. We propose a novel approach to automate coassembly, avoiding the requirement for a priori knowledge to combine metagenomic information. The comparison against a previous coassembly approach demonstrates a strong impact of this step on genome binning results, but also the benefits of informing coassembly for improving the quality of recovered genomes. MAGNETO integrates complementary assembly-binning strategies to optimize genome reconstruction and provides a complete reads-to-genomes workflow for the growing microbiome research community.
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Abstract
Alkaline fluids venting from chimneys of the Lost City hydrothermal field flow from a potentially vast microbial habitat within the seafloor where energy and organic molecules are released by chemical reactions within rocks uplifted from Earth's mantle. In this study, we investigated hydrothermal fluids venting from Lost City chimneys as windows into subseafloor environments where the products of geochemical reactions, such as molecular hydrogen (H2), formate, and methane, may be the only available sources of energy for biological activity. Our deep sequencing of metagenomes and metatranscriptomes from these hydrothermal fluids revealed a few key species of archaea and bacteria that are likely to play critical roles in the subseafloor microbial ecosystem. We identified a population of Thermodesulfovibrionales (belonging to phylum Nitrospirota) as a prevalent sulfate-reducing bacterium that may be responsible for much of the consumption of H2 and sulfate in Lost City fluids. Metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) classified as Methanosarcinaceae and Candidatus Bipolaricaulota were also recovered from venting fluids and represent potential methanogenic and acetogenic members of the subseafloor ecosystem. These genomes share novel hydrogenases and formate dehydrogenase-like sequences that may be unique to hydrothermal environments where H2 and formate are much more abundant than carbon dioxide. The results of this study include multiple examples of metabolic strategies that appear to be advantageous in hydrothermal and subsurface alkaline environments where energy and carbon are provided by geochemical reactions. IMPORTANCE The Lost City hydrothermal field is an iconic example of a microbial ecosystem fueled by energy and carbon from Earth's mantle. Uplift of mantle rocks into the seafloor can trigger a process known as serpentinization that releases molecular hydrogen (H2) and creates unusual environmental conditions where simple organic carbon molecules are more stable than dissolved inorganic carbon. This study provides an initial glimpse into the kinds of microbes that live deep within the seafloor where serpentinization takes place, by sampling hydrothermal fluids exiting from the Lost City chimneys. The metabolic strategies that these microbes appear to be using are also shared by microbes that inhabit other sites of serpentinization, including continental subsurface environments and natural springs. Therefore, the results of this study contribute to a broader, interdisciplinary effort to understand the general principles and mechanisms by which serpentinization-associated processes can support life on Earth and perhaps other worlds.
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The Polar Fox Lagoon in Siberia harbours a community of Bathyarchaeota possessing the potential for peptide fermentation and acetogenesis. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek 2022; 115:1229-1244. [PMID: 35947314 PMCID: PMC9534799 DOI: 10.1007/s10482-022-01767-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2022] [Accepted: 07/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
Archaea belonging to the phylum Bathyarchaeota are the predominant archaeal species in cold, anoxic marine sediments and additionally occur in a variety of habitats, both natural and man-made. Metagenomic and single-cell sequencing studies suggest that Bathyarchaeota may have a significant impact on the emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, either through direct production of methane or through the degradation of complex organic matter that can subsequently be converted into methane. This is especially relevant in permafrost regions where climate change leads to thawing of permafrost, making high amounts of stored carbon bioavailable. Here we present the analysis of nineteen draft genomes recovered from a sediment core metagenome of the Polar Fox Lagoon, a thermokarst lake located on the Bykovsky Peninsula in Siberia, Russia, which is connected to the brackish Tiksi Bay. We show that the Bathyarchaeota in this lake are predominantly peptide degraders, producing reduced ferredoxin from the fermentation of peptides, while degradation pathways for plant-derived polymers were found to be incomplete. Several genomes encoded the potential for acetogenesis through the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway, but methanogenesis was determined to be unlikely due to the lack of genes encoding the key enzyme in methanogenesis, methyl-CoM reductase. Many genomes lacked a clear pathway for recycling reduced ferredoxin. Hydrogen metabolism was also hardly found: one type 4e [NiFe] hydrogenase was annotated in a single MAG and no [FeFe] hydrogenases were detected. Little evidence was found for syntrophy through formate or direct interspecies electron transfer, leaving a significant gap in our understanding of the metabolism of these organisms.
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Rios-Miguel AB, Smith GJ, Cremers G, van Alen T, Jetten MS, Op den Camp HJ, Welte CU. Microbial paracetamol degradation involves a high diversity of novel amidase enzyme candidates. WATER RESEARCH X 2022; 16:100152. [PMID: 36042984 PMCID: PMC9420511 DOI: 10.1016/j.wroa.2022.100152] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2022] [Revised: 07/13/2022] [Accepted: 08/03/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Pharmaceuticals are relatively new to nature and often not completely removed in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Consequently, these micropollutants end up in water bodies all around the world posing a great environmental risk. One exception to this recalcitrant conversion is paracetamol, whose full degradation has been linked to several microorganisms. However, the genes and corresponding proteins involved in microbial paracetamol degradation are still elusive. In order to improve our knowledge of the microbial paracetamol degradation pathway, we inoculated a bioreactor with sludge of a hospital WWTP (Pharmafilter, Delft, NL) and fed it with paracetamol as the sole carbon source. Paracetamol was fully degraded without any lag phase and the enriched microbial community was investigated by metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analyses, which demonstrated that the microbial community was very diverse. Dilution and plating on paracetamol-amended agar plates yielded two Pseudomonas sp. isolates: a fast-growing Pseudomonas sp. that degraded 200 mg/L of paracetamol in approximately 10 h while excreting 4-aminophenol, and a slow-growing Pseudomonas sp. that degraded paracetamol without obvious intermediates in more than 90 days. Each Pseudomonas sp. contained a different highly-expressed amidase (31% identity to each other). These amidase genes were not detected in the bioreactor metagenome suggesting that other as-yet uncharacterized amidases may be responsible for the first biodegradation step of paracetamol. Uncharacterized deaminase genes and genes encoding dioxygenase enzymes involved in the catabolism of aromatic compounds and amino acids were the most likely candidates responsible for the degradation of paracetamol intermediates based on their high expression levels in the bioreactor metagenome and the Pseudomonas spp. genomes. Furthermore, cross-feeding between different community members might have occurred to efficiently degrade paracetamol and its intermediates in the bioreactor. This study increases our knowledge about the ongoing microbial evolution towards biodegradation of pharmaceuticals and points to a large diversity of (amidase) enzymes that are likely involved in paracetamol metabolism in WWTPs.
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Key Words
- 4-AP, 4-aminophenol
- APAP, N-acetyl-p-aminophenol or paracetamol
- Amidase evolution
- Deaminase
- Dioxygenase
- GAC, granular activated carbon
- HGT, horizontal gene transfer
- HQ, hydroquinone
- HRT, hydraulic retention time
- MAG, metagenome-assembled genome
- MBR, membrane bioreactor
- Metagenomics
- Mobile genetic elements
- Pfast, Pseudomonas sp. isolate growing fast on APAP as sole carbon source
- Pseudomonas
- Pslow, Pseudomonas sp. isolate growing slow on APAP as sole carbon source
- SRT, solid retention time
- TPM, transcripts per million
- WWTP, wastewater treatment plant
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana B. Rios-Miguel
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud University, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Heyendaalseweg 135, Nijmegen 6525 AJ, the Netherlands
| | - Garrett J. Smith
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud University, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Heyendaalseweg 135, Nijmegen 6525 AJ, the Netherlands
| | - Geert Cremers
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud University, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Heyendaalseweg 135, Nijmegen 6525 AJ, the Netherlands
| | - Theo van Alen
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud University, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Heyendaalseweg 135, Nijmegen 6525 AJ, the Netherlands
| | - Mike S.M. Jetten
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud University, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Heyendaalseweg 135, Nijmegen 6525 AJ, the Netherlands
- Soehngen Institute of Anaerobic Microbiology, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, Nijmegen 6525 AJ, the Netherlands
| | - Huub J.M. Op den Camp
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud University, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Heyendaalseweg 135, Nijmegen 6525 AJ, the Netherlands
| | - Cornelia U. Welte
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud University, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Heyendaalseweg 135, Nijmegen 6525 AJ, the Netherlands
- Soehngen Institute of Anaerobic Microbiology, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, Nijmegen 6525 AJ, the Netherlands
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Abstract
The subseafloor is a vast habitat that supports microorganisms that have a global scale impact on geochemical cycles. Many of the endemic microbial communities inhabiting the subseafloor consist of small populations under growth-limited conditions. For small populations, stochastic evolutionary events can have large impacts on intraspecific population dynamics and allele frequencies. These conditions are fundamentally different from those experienced by most microorganisms in surface environments, and it is unknown how small population sizes and growth-limiting conditions influence evolution and population structure in the subsurface. Using a 2-year, high-resolution environmental time series, we examine the dynamics of microbial populations from cold, oxic crustal fluids collected from the subseafloor site North Pond, located near the mid-Atlantic ridge. Our results reveal rapid shifts in overall abundance, allele frequency, and strain abundance across the time points observed, with evidence for homologous recombination between coexisting lineages. We show that the subseafloor aquifer is a dynamic habitat that hosts microbial metapopulations that disperse frequently through the crustal fluids, enabling gene flow and recombination between microbial populations. The dynamism and stochasticity of microbial population dynamics in North Pond suggest that these forces are important drivers in the evolution of microbial populations in the vast subseafloor habitat.
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Kieft K, Adams A, Salamzade R, Kalan L, Anantharaman K. vRhyme enables binning of viral genomes from metagenomes. Nucleic Acids Res 2022; 50:e83. [PMID: 35544285 PMCID: PMC9371927 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkac341] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2022] [Revised: 04/17/2022] [Accepted: 04/22/2022] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Genome binning has been essential for characterization of bacteria, archaea, and even eukaryotes from metagenomes. Yet, few approaches exist for viruses. We developed vRhyme, a fast and precise software for construction of viral metagenome-assembled genomes (vMAGs). vRhyme utilizes single- or multi-sample coverage effect size comparisons between scaffolds and employs supervised machine learning to identify nucleotide feature similarities, which are compiled into iterations of weighted networks and refined bins. To refine bins, vRhyme utilizes unique features of viral genomes, namely a protein redundancy scoring mechanism based on the observation that viruses seldom encode redundant genes. Using simulated viromes, we displayed superior performance of vRhyme compared to available binning tools in constructing more complete and uncontaminated vMAGs. When applied to 10,601 viral scaffolds from human skin, vRhyme advanced our understanding of resident viruses, highlighted by identification of a Herelleviridae vMAG comprised of 22 scaffolds, and another vMAG encoding a nitrate reductase metabolic gene, representing near-complete genomes post-binning. vRhyme will enable a convention of binning uncultivated viral genomes and has the potential to transform metagenome-based viral ecology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristopher Kieft
- Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA,Microbiology Doctoral Training Program, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Alyssa Adams
- Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA,Computation and Informatics in Biology and Medicine, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Rauf Salamzade
- Microbiology Doctoral Training Program, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA,Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Lindsay Kalan
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA,Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA
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Ouboter HT, Berben T, Berger S, Jetten MSM, Sleutels T, Ter Heijne A, Welte CU. Methane-Dependent Extracellular Electron Transfer at the Bioanode by the Anaerobic Archaeal Methanotroph " Candidatus Methanoperedens". Front Microbiol 2022; 13:820989. [PMID: 35495668 PMCID: PMC9039326 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.820989] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2021] [Accepted: 03/10/2022] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Anaerobic methanotrophic (ANME) archaea have recently been reported to be capable of using insoluble extracellular electron acceptors via extracellular electron transfer (EET). In this study, we investigated EET by a microbial community dominated by "Candidatus Methanoperedens" archaea at the anode of a bioelectrochemical system (BES) poised at 0 V vs. standard hydrogen electrode (SHE), in this way measuring current as a direct proxy of EET by this community. After inoculation of the BES, the maximum current density was 274 mA m-2 (stable current up to 39 mA m-2). Concomitant conversion of 13CH4 into 13CO2 demonstrated that current production was methane-dependent, with 38% of the current attributed directly to methane supply. Based on the current production and methane uptake in a closed system, the Coulombic efficiency was about 17%. Polarization curves demonstrated that the current was limited by microbial activity at potentials above 0 V. The metatranscriptome of the inoculum was mined for the expression of c-type cytochromes potentially used for EET, which led to the identification of several multiheme c-type cytochrome-encoding genes among the most abundant transcripts in "Ca. Methanoperedens." Our study provides strong indications of EET in ANME archaea and describes a system in which ANME-mediated EET can be investigated under laboratory conditions, which provides new research opportunities for mechanistic studies and possibly the generation of axenic ANME cultures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heleen T Ouboter
- Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Department of Microbiology, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Tom Berben
- Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Department of Microbiology, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Stefanie Berger
- Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Department of Microbiology, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Mike S M Jetten
- Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Department of Microbiology, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Tom Sleutels
- Wetsus, European Center of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology, Leeuwarden, Netherlands.,Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | | | - Cornelia U Welte
- Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Department of Microbiology, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
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Genome Streamlining, Proteorhodopsin, and Organic Nitrogen Metabolism in Freshwater Nitrifiers. mBio 2022; 13:e0237921. [PMID: 35435701 PMCID: PMC9239080 DOI: 10.1128/mbio.02379-21] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Microbial nitrification is a critical process governing nitrogen availability in aquatic systems. Freshwater nitrifiers have received little attention, leaving many unanswered questions about their taxonomic distribution, functional potential, and ecological interactions. Here, we reconstructed genomes to infer the metabolism and ecology of free-living picoplanktonic nitrifiers across the Laurentian Great Lakes, a connected series of five of Earth’s largest lakes. Surprisingly, ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) related to Nitrosospira dominated over ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) at nearly all stations, with distinct ecotypes prevailing in the transparent, oligotrophic upper lakes compared to Lakes Erie and Ontario. Unexpectedly, one ecotype of Nitrosospira encodes proteorhodopsin, which could enhance survival under conditions where ammonia oxidation is inhibited or substrate limited. Nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) “Candidatus Nitrotoga” and Nitrospira fluctuated in dominance, with the latter prevailing in deeper, less-productive basins. Genome reconstructions reveal highly reduced genomes and features consistent with genome streamlining, along with diverse adaptations to sunlight and oxidative stress and widespread capacity for organic nitrogen use. Our findings expand the known functional diversity of nitrifiers and establish their ecological genomics in large lake ecosystems. By elucidating links between microbial biodiversity and biogeochemical cycling, our work also informs ecosystem models of the Laurentian Great Lakes, a critical freshwater resource experiencing rapid environmental change.
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38
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Suarez C, Dalcin Martins P, Jetten M, Karačić S, Wilén BM, Modin O, Hagelia P, Hermansson M, Persson F. Metagenomic evidence of a novel family of anammox bacteria in a subsea environment. Environ Microbiol 2022; 24:2348-2360. [PMID: 35415863 PMCID: PMC9325076 DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.16006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2021] [Accepted: 04/07/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022]
Abstract
Bacteria in the order ‘Candidatus Brocadiales’ within the phylum Planctomycetes (Planctomycetota) have the remarkable ability to perform anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox). Two families of anammox bacteria with different biogeographical distributions have been reported, marine Ca. Scalinduaceae and freshwater Ca. Brocadiaceae. Here we report evidence of three new species within a novel genus and family of anammox bacteria, which were discovered in biofilms of a subsea road tunnel under a fjord in Norway. In this particular ecosystem, the nitrogen cycle is likely fuelled by ammonia from organic matter degradation in the fjord sediments and the rock mass above the tunnel, resulting in the growth of biofilms where anammox bacteria can thrive under oxygen limitation. We resolved several metagenome‐assembled genomes (MAGs) of anammox bacteria, including three Ca. Brocadiales MAGs that could not be classified at the family level. MAGs of this novel family had all the diagnostic genes for a full anaerobic ammonium oxidation pathway in which nitrite was probably reduced by a NirK‐like reductase. A survey of published molecular data indicated that this new family of anammox bacteria occurs in many marine sediments, where its members presumably would contribute to nitrogen loss.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carolina Suarez
- Division of Water Resources Engineering, Faculty of Engineering LTH, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.,Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Paula Dalcin Martins
- Department of Microbiology, RIBES, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Mike Jetten
- Department of Microbiology, RIBES, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Sabina Karačić
- Division of Water Environment Technology, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Britt Marie Wilén
- Division of Water Environment Technology, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Oskar Modin
- Division of Water Environment Technology, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Per Hagelia
- Construction Division, The Norwegian Public Roads Administration, Oslo, Norway
| | - Malte Hermansson
- Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Frank Persson
- Division of Water Environment Technology, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
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39
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Universal activity-based labeling method for ammonia- and alkane-oxidizing bacteria. THE ISME JOURNAL 2022; 16:958-971. [PMID: 34743174 PMCID: PMC8941013 DOI: 10.1038/s41396-021-01144-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2021] [Revised: 10/13/2021] [Accepted: 10/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
The advance of metagenomics in combination with intricate cultivation approaches has facilitated the discovery of novel ammonia-, methane-, and other short-chain alkane-oxidizing microorganisms, indicating that our understanding of the microbial biodiversity within the biogeochemical nitrogen and carbon cycles still is incomplete. The in situ detection and phylogenetic identification of novel ammonia- and alkane-oxidizing bacteria remain challenging due to their naturally low abundances and difficulties in obtaining new isolates from complex samples. Here, we describe an activity-based protein profiling protocol allowing cultivation-independent unveiling of ammonia- and alkane-oxidizing bacteria. In this protocol, 1,7-octadiyne is used as a bifunctional enzyme probe that, in combination with a highly specific alkyne-azide cycloaddition reaction, enables the fluorescent or biotin labeling of cells harboring active ammonia and alkane monooxygenases. Biotinylation of these enzymes in combination with immunogold labeling revealed the subcellular localization of the tagged proteins, which corroborated expected enzyme targets in model strains. In addition, fluorescent labeling of cells harboring active ammonia or alkane monooxygenases provided a direct link of these functional lifestyles to phylogenetic identification when combined with fluorescence in situ hybridization. Furthermore, we show that this activity-based labeling protocol can be successfully coupled with fluorescence-activated cell sorting for the enrichment of nitrifiers and alkane-oxidizing bacteria from complex environmental samples, enabling the recovery of high-quality metagenome-assembled genomes. In conclusion, this study demonstrates a novel, functional tagging technique for the reliable detection, identification, and enrichment of ammonia- and alkane-oxidizing bacteria present in complex microbial communities.
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40
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Garber AI, Armbruster CR, Lee SE, Cooper VS, Bomberger JM, McAllister SM. SprayNPray: user-friendly taxonomic profiling of genome and metagenome contigs. BMC Genomics 2022; 23:202. [PMID: 35279076 PMCID: PMC8917688 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-022-08382-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2021] [Accepted: 02/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Shotgun sequencing of cultured microbial isolates/individual eukaryotes (whole-genome sequencing) and microbial communities (metagenomics) has become commonplace in biology. Very often, sequenced samples encompass organisms spanning multiple domains of life, necessitating increasingly elaborate software for accurate taxonomic classification of assembled sequences. RESULTS While many software tools for taxonomic classification exist, SprayNPray offers a quick and user-friendly, semi-automated approach, allowing users to separate contigs by taxonomy (and other metrics) of interest. Easy installation, usage, and intuitive output, which is amenable to visual inspection and/or further computational parsing, will reduce barriers for biologists beginning to analyze genomes and metagenomes. This approach can be used for broad-level overviews, preliminary analyses, or as a supplement to other taxonomic classification or binning software. SprayNPray profiles contigs using multiple metrics, including closest homologs from a user-specified reference database, gene density, read coverage, GC content, tetranucleotide frequency, and codon-usage bias. CONCLUSIONS The output from this software is designed to allow users to spot-check metagenome-assembled genomes, identify, and remove contigs from putative contaminants in isolate assemblies, identify bacteria in eukaryotic assemblies (and vice-versa), and identify possible horizontal gene transfer events.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arkadiy I Garber
- Biodesign Center for Mechanisms of Evolution, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA.
| | - Catherine R Armbruster
- Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15219, USA
| | - Stella E Lee
- Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA
| | - Vaughn S Cooper
- Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15219, USA
| | - Jennifer M Bomberger
- Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15219, USA
| | - Sean M McAllister
- Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seattle, WA, 98115, USA.
- The Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98105, USA.
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41
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Palomo A, Dechesne A, Cordero OX, Smets BF. Evolutionary Ecology of Natural Comammox Nitrospira Populations. mSystems 2022; 7:e0113921. [PMID: 35014874 PMCID: PMC8751384 DOI: 10.1128/msystems.01139-21] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2021] [Accepted: 12/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Microbes commonly exist in diverse and complex communities where species interact, and their genomic repertoires evolve over time. Our understanding of species interaction and evolution has increased during the last decades, but most studies of evolutionary dynamics are based on single species in isolation or in experimental systems composed of few interacting species. Here, we use the microbial ecosystem found in groundwater-fed sand filter as a model to avoid this limitation. In these open systems, diverse microbial communities experience relatively stable conditions, and the coupling between chemical and biological processes is generally well defined. Metagenomic analysis of 12 sand filters communities revealed systematic co-occurrence of at least five comammox Nitrospira species, likely promoted by low ammonium concentrations. These Nitrospira species showed intrapopulation sequence diversity, although possible clonal expansion was detected in a few abundant local comammox populations. Nitrospira species showed low homologous recombination and strong purifying selection, the latter process being especially strong in genes essential in energy metabolism. Positive selection was detected for genes related to resistance to foreign DNA and phages. We found that, compared to other habitats, groundwater-fed sand filters impose strong purifying selection and low recombination on comammox Nitrospira populations. These results suggest that evolutionary processes are more affected by habitat type than by species identity. Together, this study improves our understanding of species interaction and evolution in complex microbial communities and sheds light on the environmental dependency of evolutionary processes. IMPORTANCE Microbial species interact with each other and their environment (ecological processes) and undergo changes in their genomic repertoire over time (evolutionary processes). How these two classes of processes interact is largely unknown, especially for complex communities, as most studies of microbial evolutionary dynamics consider single species in isolation or a few interacting species in simplified experimental systems. In this study, these limitations are circumvented by examining the microbial communities found in stable and well-described groundwater-fed sand filters. Combining metagenomics and strain-level analyses, we identified the microbial interactions and evolutionary processes affecting comammox Nitrospira, a recently discovered bacterial type capable of performing the whole nitrification process. We found that abundant and co-occurrent Nitrospira populations in groundwater-fed sand filters are characterized by low recombination and strong purifying selection. In addition, by comparing these observations with those obtained from Nitrospira species inhabiting other environments, we revealed that evolutionary processes are more affected by habitat type than by species identity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alejandro Palomo
- Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Arnaud Dechesne
- Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Otto X. Cordero
- Ralph M. Parsons Laboratory for Environmental Science and Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Barth F. Smets
- Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
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42
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Ventolero MF, Wang S, Hu H, Li X. Computational analyses of bacterial strains from shotgun reads. Brief Bioinform 2022; 23:6524011. [PMID: 35136954 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbac013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2021] [Revised: 01/10/2022] [Accepted: 01/11/2022] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Shotgun sequencing is routinely employed to study bacteria in microbial communities. With the vast amount of shotgun sequencing reads generated in a metagenomic project, it is crucial to determine the microbial composition at the strain level. This study investigated 20 computational tools that attempt to infer bacterial strain genomes from shotgun reads. For the first time, we discussed the methodology behind these tools. We also systematically evaluated six novel-strain-targeting tools on the same datasets and found that BHap, mixtureS and StrainFinder performed better than other tools. Because the performance of the best tools is still suboptimal, we discussed future directions that may address the limitations.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Saidi Wang
- Department of Computer Science, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA
| | - Haiyan Hu
- Department of Computer Science, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA.,Genomics and Bioinformatics Cluster, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA
| | - Xiaoman Li
- Burnett School of Biomedical Science, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA
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43
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Manck LE, Park J, Tully BJ, Poire AM, Bundy RM, Dupont CL, Barbeau KA. Petrobactin, a siderophore produced by Alteromonas, mediates community iron acquisition in the global ocean. THE ISME JOURNAL 2022; 16:358-369. [PMID: 34341506 PMCID: PMC8776838 DOI: 10.1038/s41396-021-01065-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2021] [Revised: 07/06/2021] [Accepted: 07/08/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
It is now widely accepted that siderophores play a role in marine iron biogeochemical cycling. However, the mechanisms by which siderophores affect the availability of iron from specific sources and the resulting significance of these processes on iron biogeochemical cycling as a whole have remained largely untested. In this study, we develop a model system for testing the effects of siderophore production on iron bioavailability using the marine copiotroph Alteromonas macleodii ATCC 27126. Through the generation of the knockout cell line ΔasbB::kmr, which lacks siderophore biosynthetic capabilities, we demonstrate that the production of the siderophore petrobactin enables the acquisition of iron from mineral sources and weaker iron-ligand complexes. Notably, the utilization of lithogenic iron, such as that from atmospheric dust, indicates a significant role for siderophores in the incorporation of new iron into marine systems. We have also detected petrobactin, a photoreactive siderophore, directly from seawater in the mid-latitudes of the North Pacific and have identified the biosynthetic pathway for petrobactin in bacterial metagenome-assembled genomes widely distributed across the global ocean. Together, these results improve our mechanistic understanding of the role of siderophore production in iron biogeochemical cycling in the marine environment wherein iron speciation, bioavailability, and residence time can be directly influenced by microbial activities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lauren E Manck
- Geosciences Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
| | - Jiwoon Park
- School of Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Benjamin J Tully
- Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Alfonso M Poire
- Department of Environment and Sustainability, J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Randelle M Bundy
- School of Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Christopher L Dupont
- Department of Environment and Sustainability, J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
- Department of Human Health, J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
- Department of Synthetic Biology, J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Katherine A Barbeau
- Geosciences Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
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44
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D’Angelo T, Goordial J, Poulton NJ, Seyler L, Huber JA, Stepanauskas R, Orcutt BN. Oceanic Crustal Fluid Single Cell Genomics Complements Metagenomic and Metatranscriptomic Surveys With Orders of Magnitude Less Sample Volume. Front Microbiol 2022; 12:738231. [PMID: 35140689 PMCID: PMC8819061 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.738231] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2021] [Accepted: 11/30/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Fluids circulating through oceanic crust play important roles in global biogeochemical cycling mediated by their microbial inhabitants, but studying these sites is challenged by sampling logistics and low biomass. Borehole observatories installed at the North Pond study site on the western flank of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge have enabled investigation of the microbial biosphere in cold, oxygenated basaltic oceanic crust. Here we test a methodology that applies redox-sensitive fluorescent molecules for flow cytometric sorting of cells for single cell genomic sequencing from small volumes of low biomass (approximately 103 cells ml-1) crustal fluid. We compare the resulting genomic data to a recently published paired metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analysis from the same site. Even with low coverage genome sequencing, sorting cells from less than one milliliter of crustal fluid results in similar interpretation of dominant taxa and functional profiles as compared to 'omics analysis that typically filter orders of magnitude more fluid volume. The diverse community dominated by Gammaproteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Desulfobacterota, Alphaproteobacteria, and Zetaproteobacteria, had evidence of autotrophy and heterotrophy, a variety of nitrogen and sulfur cycling metabolisms, and motility. Together, results indicate fluorescence activated cell sorting methodology is a powerful addition to the toolbox for the study of low biomass systems or at sites where only small sample volumes are available for analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Timothy D’Angelo
- Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay, ME, United States
| | - Jacqueline Goordial
- Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay, ME, United States
- School of Environmental Sciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - Nicole J. Poulton
- Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay, ME, United States
| | - Lauren Seyler
- School of Natural Science and Mathematics, Stockton University, Galloway, NJ, United States
- Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, United States
| | - Julie A. Huber
- Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, United States
| | | | - Beth N. Orcutt
- Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay, ME, United States
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45
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Bornemann TLV, Adam PS, Probst AJ. Reconstruction of Archaeal Genomes from Short-Read Metagenomes. Methods Mol Biol 2022; 2522:487-527. [PMID: 36125772 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2445-6_33] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
As the majority of biological diversity remains unexplored and uncultured, investigating it requires culture-independent approaches. Archaea in particular suffer from a multitude of issues that make their culturing problematic, from them being frequently members of the rare biosphere, to low growth rates, to them thriving under very specific and often extreme environmental and community conditions that are difficult to replicate. OMICs techniques are state of the art approaches that allow direct high-throughput investigations of environmental samples at all levels from nucleic acids to proteins, lipids, and secondary metabolites. Metagenomics, as the foundation for other OMICs techniques, facilitates the identification and functional characterization of the microbial community members and can be combined with other methods to provide insights into the microbial activities, both on the RNA and protein levels. In this chapter, we provide a step-by-step workflow for the recovery of archaeal genomes from metagenomes, starting from raw short-read sequences. This workflow can be applied to recover bacterial genomes as well.
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Affiliation(s)
- Till L V Bornemann
- Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
| | - Panagiotis S Adam
- Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Alexander J Probst
- Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
- Centre of Water and Environmental Research (ZWU), University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
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46
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Pelsma KAJ, In 't Zandt MH, Op den Camp HJM, Jetten MSM, Dean JF, Welte CU. Amsterdam urban canals contain novel niches for methane-cycling microorganisms. Environ Microbiol 2021; 24:82-97. [PMID: 34863018 PMCID: PMC9299808 DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.15864] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2021] [Revised: 12/01/2021] [Accepted: 12/01/2021] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
Urbanised environments have been identified as hotspots of anthropogenic methane emissions. Especially urban aquatic ecosystems are increasingly recognised as important sources of methane. However, the microbiology behind these emissions remains unexplored. Here, we applied microcosm incubations and molecular analyses to investigate the methane‐cycling community of the Amsterdam canal system in the Netherlands. The sediment methanogenic communities were dominated by Methanoregulaceae and Methanosaetaceae, with co‐occurring methanotrophic Methanoperedenaceae and Methylomirabilaceae indicating the potential for anaerobic methane oxidation. Methane was readily produced after substrate amendment, suggesting an active but substrate‐limited methanogenic community. Bacterial 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing of the sediment revealed a high relative abundance of Thermodesulfovibrionia. Canal wall biofilms showed the highest initial methanotrophic potential under oxic conditions compared to the sediment. During prolonged incubations the maximum methanotrophic rate increased to 8.08 mmol gDW−1 d−1 that was concomitant with an enrichment of Methylomonadaceae bacteria. Metagenomic analysis of the canal wall biofilm lead to the recovery of a single methanotroph metagenome‐assembled genome. Taxonomic analysis showed that this methanotroph belongs to the genus Methyloglobulus. Our results underline the importance of previously unidentified and specialised environmental niches at the nexus of the natural and human‐impacted carbon cycle.
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Affiliation(s)
- Koen A J Pelsma
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Heyendaalseweg 135, Nijmegen, 6525 AJ, The Netherlands.,Netherlands Earth System Science Centre, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 2, Utrecht, 3584 CS, The Netherlands
| | - Michiel H In 't Zandt
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Heyendaalseweg 135, Nijmegen, 6525 AJ, The Netherlands.,Netherlands Earth System Science Centre, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 2, Utrecht, 3584 CS, The Netherlands
| | - Huub J M Op den Camp
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Heyendaalseweg 135, Nijmegen, 6525 AJ, The Netherlands
| | - Mike S M Jetten
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Heyendaalseweg 135, Nijmegen, 6525 AJ, The Netherlands.,Netherlands Earth System Science Centre, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 2, Utrecht, 3584 CS, The Netherlands.,Soehngen Institute of Anaerobic Microbiology, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, Nijmegen, 6525 AJ, The Netherlands
| | - Joshua F Dean
- School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3GP, UK
| | - Cornelia U Welte
- Department of Microbiology, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Heyendaalseweg 135, Nijmegen, 6525 AJ, The Netherlands.,Soehngen Institute of Anaerobic Microbiology, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, Nijmegen, 6525 AJ, The Netherlands
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47
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Blyton MDJ, Soo RM, Hugenholtz P, Moore BD. Maternal inheritance of the koala gut microbiome and its compositional and functional maturation during juvenile development. Environ Microbiol 2021; 24:475-493. [PMID: 34863030 DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.15858] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2021] [Revised: 11/02/2021] [Accepted: 11/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
The acquisition and maturation of the gastrointestinal microbiome is a crucial aspect of mammalian development, particularly for specialist herbivores such as the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus). Joey koalas are thought to be inoculated with microorganisms by feeding on specialized maternal faeces (pap). We found that compared to faeces, pap has higher microbial density, higher microbial evenness and a higher proportion of rare taxa, which may facilitate the establishment of those taxa in joey koalas. We show that the microbiomes of captive joey koalas were on average more similar to those of their mothers than to other koalas, indicating strong maternal inheritance of the faecal microbiome, which can lead to intergenerational gut dysbiosis when the mother is ill. Directly after pap feeding, the joey koalas' microbiomes were enriched for milk-associated bacteria including Bacteroides fragilis, suggesting a conserved role for this species across mammalian taxa. The joeys' microbiomes then changed slowly over 5 months to resemble those of adults by 1 year of age. The relative abundance of fibrolytic bacteria and genes involved in the degradation of plant cell walls also increased in the infants over this time, likely in response to an increased proportion of Eucalyptus leaves in their diets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michaela D J Blyton
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond, NSW, 2753, Australia.,The University of Queensland, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, Qld, St Lucia, 4072, Australia
| | - Rochelle M Soo
- The University of Queensland, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, Qld, St Lucia, 4072, Australia
| | - Philip Hugenholtz
- The University of Queensland, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, Qld, St Lucia, 4072, Australia
| | - Ben D Moore
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond, NSW, 2753, Australia
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48
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Wu C, Yin Y, Zhu L, Zhang Y, Li YZ. Metagenomic sequencing-driven multidisciplinary approaches to shed light on the untapped microbial natural products. Drug Discov Today 2021; 27:730-742. [PMID: 34775105 DOI: 10.1016/j.drudis.2021.11.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2020] [Revised: 10/07/2021] [Accepted: 11/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
The advantage of metagenomics over the culture-based natural product (NP) discovery pipeline is the ability to access the biosynthetic potential of uncultivable microbes. Advances in DNA sequencing are revolutionizing conventional metagenomics approaches for microbial NP discovery. The genomes of (in)cultivable bugs can be resolved straightforwardly from environmental samples, enabling in situ prediction of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). The predicted chemical diversities could be realized not only by heterologous expression of gene clusters originating from DNA synthesis or direct cloning, but also potentially by bioinformatic-directed organic synthesis or chemoenzymatic total synthesis. In this review, we suggest that metagenomic sequencing in tandem with multidisciplinary approaches will form a versatile platform to shed light on a plethora of microbial 'dark matter'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Changsheng Wu
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Institute of Microbial Technology, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China.
| | - Yizhen Yin
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Institute of Microbial Technology, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China
| | - Lele Zhu
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Institute of Microbial Technology, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China
| | - Youming Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Institute of Microbial Technology, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China
| | - Yue-Zhong Li
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Institute of Microbial Technology, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China.
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Wan XH. Artificial intelligence reveals roles of gut microbiota in driving human colorectal cancer evolution. Artif Intell Cancer 2021; 2:69-78. [DOI: 10.35713/aic.v2.i5.69] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2021] [Revised: 10/24/2021] [Accepted: 10/27/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
With the rapid development of high-throughput sequencing and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, gut mucosal microbiota begins to be recognized as critical drivers of human colorectal cancer (CRC). Various AI approaches have been designed to obtain effective information from enormous numbers of microbial cells residing in gut mucosal as well as cancer cells. These mainly include detection of microbial markers for early clinical diagnosis of stage-specific CRC, characterization of pathogenic bacterial activities via genomic and transcriptomic analyses, and prediction of interplay between bacterial drivers and host immune systems. Here I review the current progresses of AI applications in profiling gut microbiomes linked to CRC initiation and development. I further look forward to future AI research for improving our understanding of the roles of gut microbiota in CRC evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xue-Hua Wan
- TEDA Institute of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Nankai University, Tianjin 300457, China
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Music of metagenomics-a review of its applications, analysis pipeline, and associated tools. Funct Integr Genomics 2021; 22:3-26. [PMID: 34657989 DOI: 10.1007/s10142-021-00810-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2021] [Revised: 09/25/2021] [Accepted: 10/03/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
This humble effort highlights the intricate details of metagenomics in a simple, poetic, and rhythmic way. The paper enforces the significance of the research area, provides details about major analytical methods, examines the taxonomy and assembly of genomes, emphasizes some tools, and concludes by celebrating the richness of the ecosystem populated by the "metagenome."
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