Publications

4856

Significance Phosphite (HPO 3 2− ) is the most energetically favorable biological electron donor known, but only one organism capable of growing by phosphite oxidation has been previously identified. Here, we describe a phosphite-oxidizing bacterium that can grow with CO 2 as its sole electron acceptor, and we propose a metabolic model in which inorganic carbon is assimilated via the reductive glycine pathway. Although the reductive glycine pathway has previously been identified as a “synthetic” carbon fixation pathway, this study provides evidence that it may actually function as a natural autotrophic pathway. Our results suggest that phosphite may serve as a driver of microbial growth and carbon fixation in energy-limited environments, particularly in aphotic environments lacking alternative terminal electron acceptors.

Citrus production throughout the world is being severely threatened by Huanglongbing (HLB), which is a disease associated with the bacteria ‘Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus’ (CLas), africanus, and americanus. This Resource Announcement provides amplicon-based next generation sequencing (NGS) datasets of the bacterial and fungal rRNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region from CLas-infected citrus budwood, leaves, and roots from five orchards located in different geographical regions in Florida (USA). To our knowledge, this is the first amplicon-based NGS study (i) that describes the fungal taxa associated with citrus and (ii) that provides comparative analyses of the bacterial and fungal taxa associated with budwood, leaves, and roots from the same citrus trees. This report also provides the sample metadata linked to these sequence datasets including HLB severity rating, tissue type, citrus rootstock, citrus scion, geographical region, and year trees were planted. When analyzed with other similar datasets, we anticipate that researchers will be able to obtain a greater understanding of the factors that shape the citrus microbiome as well as identify individual microorganisms or consortia of microorganisms that play a role in HLB suppression or exacerbation.

Abstract Actinobacteria of the acI lineage are the most abundant microbes in freshwater systems, but there are so far no pure living cultures of these organisms, possibly because of metabolic dependencies on other microbes. This, in turn, has hampered an in-depth assessment of the genomic basis for their success in the environment. Here we present genomes from 16 axenic cultures of acI Actinobacteria. The isolates were not only of minute cell size, but also among the most streamlined free-living microbes, with extremely small genome sizes (1.2–1.4 Mbp) and low genomic GC content. Genome reduction in these bacteria might have led to auxotrophy for various vitamins, amino acids and reduced sulphur sources, thus creating dependencies to co-occurring organisms (the ‘Black Queen’ hypothesis). Genome analyses, moreover, revealed a surprising degree of inter- and intraspecific diversity in metabolic pathways, especially of carbohydrate transport and metabolism, and mainly encoded in genomic islands. The striking genotype microdiversification of acI Actinobacteria might explain their global success in highly dynamic freshwater environments with complex seasonal patterns of allochthonous and autochthonous carbon sources. We propose a new order within Actinobacteria (‘Candidatus Nanopelagicales’) with two new genera (‘Candidatus Nanopelagicus’ and ‘Candidatus Planktophila’) and nine new species.