Jeon, Che Ok

SignificanceHeme is essential for respiration. As a cofactor of cytochromes, heme functions as a main electron carrier in all respiratory electron transport chains. Therefore, it is natural to expect all respiring and free-living microorganisms to make heme. Against this expectation, here we show that the acI lineage, one of the most abundant bacterial groups in freshwater environments, is unable to biosynthesize heme and requires exogenous heme. Furthermore, we provide genomic evidence for putative heme auxotrophy among many not-yet-cultured aquatic microbial groups. Heme should be the focus of future research on the metabolic dependency among microorganisms and the role of exchangeable metabolites in structuring diverse ecosystems, and would also be a media component that must be considered when cultivating novel microbes.

ABSTRACT Soil nitrification plays an important role in the reduction of soil fertility and in nitrate enrichment of groundwater. Various ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) are considered to be members of the pool of ammonia-oxidizing microorganisms in soil. This study reports the discovery of a chemolithoautotrophic ammonia oxidizer that belongs to a distinct clade of nonmarine thaumarchaeal group I.1a, which is widespread in terrestrial environments. The archaeal strain MY2 was cultivated from a deep oligotrophic soil horizon. The similarity of the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain MY2 to those of other cultivated group I.1a thaumarchaeota members, i.e., Nitrosopumilus maritimus and “ Candidatus Nitrosoarchaeum koreensis,” is 92.9% for both species. Extensive growth assays showed that strain MY2 is chemolithoautotrophic, mesophilic (optimum temperature, 30°C), and neutrophilic (optimum pH, 7 to 7.5). The accumulation of nitrite above 1 mM inhibited ammonia oxidation, while ammonia oxidation itself was not inhibited in the presence of up to 5 mM ammonia. The genome size of strain MY2 was 1.76 Mb, similar to those of N. maritimus and “ Ca . Nitrosoarchaeum koreensis,” and the repertoire of genes required for ammonia oxidation and carbon fixation in thaumarchaeal group I.1a was conserved. A high level of representation of conserved orthologous genes for signal transduction and motility in the noncore genome might be implicated in niche adaptation by strain MY2. On the basis of phenotypic, phylogenetic, and genomic characteristics, we propose the name “ Candidatus Nitrosotenuis chungbukensis” for the ammonia-oxidizing archaeal strain MY2.

ABSTRACT To characterize the denitrifying phosphorus (P) uptake properties of “ Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis,” a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) was operated with acetate. The SBR operation was gradually acclimated from anaerobic-oxic (AO) to anaerobic-anoxic-oxic (A2O) conditions by stepwise increases of nitrate concentration and the anoxic time. The communities of “ Ca . Accumulibacter” and associated bacteria at the initial (AO) and final (A2O) stages were compared using 16S rRNA and polyphosphate kinase genes and using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). The acclimation process led to a clear shift in the relative abundances of recognized “ Ca . Accumulibacter” subpopulations from clades IIA > IA > IIF to clades IIC > IA > IIF, as well as to increases in the abundance of other associated bacteria ( Dechloromonas [from 1.2% to 19.2%] and “ Candidatus Competibacter phosphatis” [from 16.4% to 20.0%]), while the overall “ Ca . Accumulibacter” abundance decreased (from 55.1% to 29.2%). A series of batch experiments combined with FISH/microautoradiography (MAR) analyses was performed to characterize the denitrifying P uptake properties of the “ Ca . Accumulibacter” clades. In FISH/MAR experiments using slightly diluted sludge (∼0.5 g/liter), all “ Ca . Accumulibacter” clades successfully took up phosphorus in the presence of nitrate. However, the “ Ca . Accumulibacter” clades showed no P uptake in the presence of nitrate when the sludge was highly diluted (∼0.005 g/liter); under these conditions, reduction of nitrate to nitrite did not occur, whereas P uptake by “ Ca . Accumulibacter” clades occurred when nitrite was added. These results suggest that the “ Ca . Accumulibacter” cells lack nitrate reduction capabilities and that P uptake by “ Ca . Accumulibacter” is dependent upon nitrite generated by associated nitrate-reducing bacteria such as Dechloromonas and “ Ca . Competibacter.”

ABSTRACT To investigate the fine-scale diversity of the polyphosphate-accumulating organisms (PAO) “ Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis” (henceforth referred to as “ Ca. Accumulibacter”), two laboratory-scale sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) for enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) were operated with sodium acetate as the sole carbon source. During SBR operations, activated sludge always contained morphologically different “ Ca . Accumulibacter” strains showing typical EBPR performances, as confirmed by the combined technique of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and microautoradiography (MAR). Fragments of “ Ca. Accumulibacter” 16S rRNA genes were retrieved from the sludge. Phylogenetic analyses together with sequences from the GenBank database showed that “ Ca. Accumulibacter” 16S rRNA genes of the EBPR sludge were clearly differentiated into four “ Ca. Accumulibacter” clades, Acc-SG1, Acc-SG2, Acc-SG3, and Acc-SG4. The specific FISH probes Acc444, Acc184, Acc72, and Acc119 targeting these clades and some helpers and competitors were designed by using the ARB program. Microbial characterization by FISH analysis using specific FISH probes also clearly indicated the presence of different “ Ca. Accumulibacter” cell morphotypes. Especially, members of Acc-SG3, targeted by probe Acc72, were coccobacillus-shaped cells with a size of approximately 2 to 3 μm, while members of Acc-SG1, Acc-SG2, and Acc-SG4, targeted by Acc444, Acc184, and Acc119, respectively, were coccus-shaped cells approximately 1 μm in size. Subsequently, cells targeted by each FISH probe were sorted by use of a flow cytometer, and their polyphosphate kinase 1 ( ppk1 ) gene homologs were amplified by using a ppk1 -specific PCR primer set for “ Ca. Accumulibacter.” The phylogenetic tree based on sequences of the ppk1 gene homologs was basically congruent with that of the 16S rRNA genes, but members of Acc-SG3 with a distinct morphology comprised two different ppk1 genes. These results suggest that “ Ca. Accumulibacter” strains may be diverse physiologically and ecologically and represent distinct populations with genetically determined adaptations in EBPR systems.