Search

Marine picocyanobacteria Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus , the most abundant photosynthetic cells in the oceans, are generally thought to have a primarily single-celled and free-living lifestyle. However, while studying the ability of picocyanobacteria to supplement photosynthetic carbon fixation with the use of exogenous organic carbon, we found the widespread occurrence of genes for breaking down chitin, an abundant source of organic carbon that exists primarily as particles. We show that cells that encode a chitin degradation pathway display chitin degradation activity, attach to chitin particles, and show enhanced growth under low light conditions when exposed to chitosan, a partially deacetylated soluble form of chitin. Marine chitin is largely derived from arthropods, which underwent major diversifications 520 to 535 Mya, close to when marine picocyanobacteria are inferred to have appeared in the ocean. Phylogenetic analyses confirm that the chitin utilization trait was acquired at the root of marine picocyanobacteria. Together this leads us to postulate that attachment to chitin particles allowed benthic cyanobacteria to emulate their mat-based lifestyle in the water column, initiating their expansion into the open ocean, seeding the rise of modern marine ecosystems. Subsequently, transitioning to a constitutive planktonic life without chitin associations led to cellular and genomic streamlining along a major early branch within Prochlorococcus . Our work highlights how the emergence of associations between organisms from different trophic levels, and their coevolution, creates opportunities for colonizing new environments. In this view, the rise of ecological complexity and the expansion of the biosphere are deeply intertwined processes.

Marine picocyanobacteria (Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus), the most abundant photosynthetic cells in the oceans, are generally thought to have a primarily single-celled and free-living lifestyle. However, we find that genes for breaking down chitin - an abundant source of organic carbon that primarily exists as particles - are widespread in this group. We further show that cells with a chitin degradation pathway display chitin degradation activity, attach to chitin particles and show enhanced growth under low light conditions when exposed to chitosan, a partially deacetylated form of chitin. Marine chitin is largely derived from arthropods, whose roots lie in the early Phanerozoic, 520-535 million years ago, close to when marine picocyanobacteria began colonizing the ocean. We postulate that attachment to chitin particles allowed benthic cyanobacteria to emulate their mat-based lifestyle in the water column, initiating their expansion into the open ocean, seeding the rise of modern marine ecosystems. Transitioning to a constitutive planktonic life without chitin associations along a major early branch within the Prochlorococcus tree led to cellular and genomic streamlining. Our work highlights how coevolution across trophic levels creates metabolic opportunities and drives biospheric expansions.

Cobalamin (vitamin B12) is an essential enzyme cofactor for most branches of life. Despite the potential importance of this cofactor for soil microbial communities, the producers and consumers of cobalamin in terrestrial environments are still unknown. Here we provide the first metagenome-based assessment of soil cobalamin-producing bacteria and archaea, quantifying and classifying genes encoding proteins for cobalamin biosynthesis, transport, remodeling, and dependency in 155 soil metagenomes with profile hidden Markov models. We also measured several forms of cobalamin (CN-, Me-, OH-, Ado-B12) and the cobalamin lower ligand (5,6-dimethylbenzimidazole; DMB) in 40 diverse soil samples. Metagenomic analysis revealed that less than 10% of soil bacteria and archaea encode the genetic potential for de novo synthesis of this important enzyme cofactor. Predominant soil cobalamin producers were associated with the Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Nitrospirae, and Thaumarchaeota. In contrast, a much larger proportion of abundant soil genera lacked cobalamin synthesis genes and instead were associated with gene sequences encoding cobalamin transport and cobalamin-dependent enzymes. The enrichment of DMB and corresponding DMB synthesis genes, relative to corrin ring synthesis genes, suggests an important role for cobalamin remodelers in terrestrial habitats. Together, our results indicate that microbial cobalamin production and repair serve as keystone functions that are significantly correlated with microbial community size, diversity, and biogeochemistry of terrestrial ecosystems.

Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) are biopolymers secreted by microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, and algae that may play a significant role in the speciation, toxicity, and biog...

We raise a detuning-dependent loss mechanism to describe the Kerr soliton formation dynamics when the lumped filtering operation is manipulated in anomalous group velocity dispersion regime, using stability analysis of Lugiato-Lefever equation.

International audience; Although soil nitrification has been studied intensively, with an effort to elucidate the relative contributions of both ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB), their relative contributions to N2O production remain unclear. Understanding the temperature- and depth-dependent activities of AOA and AOB, as well as production of N2O, is of great importance for predicting their responses to climate change. This work applied the recently discovered AOB inhibitor, octyne, to soil microcosms incubated at different temperatures (20, 30, 40 °C) in order to differentiate ammonia-oxidation potential and N2O production by AOA and AOB, in soils from different land uses and depth. Our results showed that surface soils (0-15 cm) possessed significantly greater ammonia oxidation potential than subsurface soils (30-45 cm) at all temperatures tested, and that AOA-associated nitrification potential dominated at higher temperatures for both summer and autumn soils. The accumulation of N2O was only detected in surface agricultural soil at 30 °C and positively correlated with nitrite accumulation within the incubation period. The detected N2O production, along with most nitrification potential activity, were attributed to AOB, implicating AOB as major producers of this greenhouse gas in the tested agricultural soil. Higher ammonia-oxidation activity and N2O production within surface agricultural soil reinforces the importance of agricultural surface soils as sources of nitrification and N2O production, with potential implications for land management practices and responses to climate change.

Ammonia oxidation, the first step of nitrification, is mediated by both ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB); however, the relative contributions of AOA and AOB to soil nitrification are not well understood. In this study we used 1-octyne to discriminate between AOA- and AOB-supported nitrification determined both in soil-water slurries and in unsaturated whole soil at field moisture. Soils were collected from stands of red alder (Alnus rubra Bong.) and Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii Mirb. Franco) at three sites (Cascade Head, the H.J. Andrews, and McDonald Forest) on acidic soils (pH 3.9–5.7) in Oregon, USA. The abundances of AOA and AOB were measured using quantitative PCR by targeting the amoA gene, which encodes subunit A of ammonia monooxygenase. Total and AOA-specific (octyne-resistant) nitrification activities in soil slurries were significantly higher at Cascade Head (the most acidic soils, pH

Although Thaumarchaeota are important contributors to ammonia oxidation in terrestrial habitats, distributions of ammonia oxidizers along soil depth profiles are poorly understood, especially in relation to distinct land usages. Leveraging the close proximity of forest, field and agricultural plots at the RARE: Charitable Research Reserve, we examined soil thaumarchaeotal biogeography at three different depths (0-15, 15-30 and 30-45 cm) from plots within areas of contrasting land usage. Data from high-throughput sequencing of thaumarchaeotal 16S rRNA gene sequences demonstrated that OTU richness was affected significantly by depth and land-use type. Specifically, thaumarchaeotal diversity was higher in soils from forest sites than from field sites, and lower within 0-15 cm soils than either 15-30 cm or 30-45 cm soils. Soil land-use type influenced the relative abundance of the Soil Crenarchaeota Group (SCG), with a lower relative abundance of SCG in forest sites compared to field sites. At the OTU level, thaumarchaeotal communities changed with increasing soil depth for agricultural soils, in contrast to homogeneous depth profiles generated from forest site samples. Soil pH was the strongest factor impacting thaumarchaeotal community composition and, importantly, the evenness of archaeal taxa. Nitrogen, carbon and soil texture shaped thaumarchaeotal community composition among field site samples.