Publications

4466

AbstractCultivation of microbial consortia provides low-complexity communities that can serve as tractable models to understand community dynamics. Time-resolved metagenomics demonstrated that an aerobic cellulolytic consortium cultivated from compost exhibited community dynamics consistent with the definition of an endogenous heterotrophic succession. The genome of the proposed pioneer population, ‘Candidatus Reconcilibacillus cellulovorans’, possessed a gene cluster containing multidomain glycoside hydrolases (GHs). Purification of the soluble cellulase activity from a 300litre cultivation of this consortium revealed that ~70% of the activity arose from the ‘Ca. Reconcilibacillus cellulovorans’ multidomain GHs assembled into cellulase complexes through glycosylation. These remarkably stable complexes have supramolecular structures for enzymatic cellulose hydrolysis that are distinct from cellulosomes. The persistence of these complexes during cultivation indicates that they may be active through multiple cultivations of this consortium and act as public goods that sustain the community. The provision of extracellular GHs as public goods may influence microbial community dynamics in native biomass-deconstructing communities relevant to agriculture, human health and biotechnology.

Nitrospira -like bacteria are among the most diverse and widespread nitrifiers in natural ecosystems and the dominant nitrite oxidizers in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The recent discovery of comammox-like Nitrospira strains, capable of complete oxidation of ammonia to nitrate, raises new questions about specific traits responsible for the functional versatility and adaptation of this genus to a variety of environments. The availability of new Nitrospira genome sequences from both nitrite-oxidizing and comammox bacteria offers a way to analyze traits in different Nitrospira functional groups. Our comparative genomics analysis provided new insights into the adaptation of Nitrospira strains to specific lifestyles and environmental niches.

The Rickettsiales-like prokaryote - Candidatus Xenohaliotis californiensis (Ca. Xc) – has decimated black abalone populations along the Pacific coast of North America. White abalone, – Haliotis sorenseni – are also susceptible and nearly extinct in the wild due to overfishing in the 1970s. Candidatus Xenohaliotis californiensis proliferates in epithelial cells of the abalone gastrointestinal tract and causes clinical signs of starvation. In 2012, evidence of a putative phage associated with Ca. Xc in Haliotis rufescens was described. In this study, we investigated the virulence of Ca. Xc in red and white abalone at different environmental temperatures in the presence of phage. Using a comparative experimental design, we observed differences over time between the two abalone species in mortality, body condition, and bacterial load by quantitative real time PCR (qPCR). By day 251, all white abalone exposed to the Ca. Xc and its phage in the warm water (18.5ºC) treatment died, while red abalone exposed to the same conditions had a mortality rate of 10% despite a relatively heavy bacterial burden as determined by qPCR of posterior esophagus tissue and histological assessment at the termination of the experiment. These data support the phage as a protective and potentially therapeutic agent for withering syndrome in red abalone, while white abalone appear to remain susceptible to this disease even in phage presence. These findings have important implications for implementation of a white abalone recovery program, particularly with respect to the thermal regimes of locations where captively-reared individuals will be outplanted.