Thermolithobacter ferrireducens gen. nov., sp. nov. is a novel Gram-type-positive bacterium. It is an obligately anaerobic, chemolithoautotrophic (i.e., using hydrogen as electron donor in energy production), iron(III)-reducing organism. This bacterium exhibits, under chemolithoautotrophic conditions, the highest iron reduction rate per cell reported to date, and the iron reduction occurs over the wide pH range (measured… [Read More]

Oxygen minimum zones (OMZs; areas of low dissolved oxygen concentrations) play a major role in biogeochemical cycling within the world’s oceans. They are major sinks for nitrogen and sources for the gases carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. Microbially mediated biological activity associated with these systems affects the productivity of the deep blue sea and the… [Read More]

The productivity of agricultural systems is usually nitrogen dependent. As oil prices rise, so does the price of nitrogen fertilizer, which impacts strongly on global farming economics. The only substitute for fertilizer nitrogen is the use of symbiotic legumes and their nitrogen-fixing rhizobia. This market is worth in excess of US$13 billion globally. The clover… [Read More]

Pedomicrobium manganicum lives in one of the most hostile environments on the planet, the surface of desert rocks. This ecological niche can expose it within minutes or hours to massive fluctuations in temperature, ultraviolet irradiation, and desiccation. Consequently, its genome must have evolved to encode the diverse physiological capabilities required for survival in this inhospitable… [Read More]

Methane is a major greenhouse gas and a potential alternative fuel. In the environment, methane is oxidized by aerobic methanotrophic bacteria. Most methanotrophic bacteria are unable to grow on any substrate containing a carbon-carbon bond, and are therefore termed “obligate methanotrophs”. The only known exception is the recently discovered facultative methanotroph Methylocella, which grows on… [Read More]

This project will involve the construction of metagenomic libraries from the microbiome resident in the foregut of the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii), a marsupial unique to Australia and New Zealand. The foregut microbiome of these animals coordinates efficient plant biomass degradation, but unlike that in ruminants and other herbivorous vertebrates, anaerobic fermentation in wallabies results… [Read More]

The goal of this project is to obtain complete genome sequences for six different freshwater iron (Fe)-oxidizing bacteria (FeOB). Four of these are oxygen-dependent iron-oxidizing β-proteobacteria, and three of these, Sideroxydans lithotrophicus, Gallionella capsiferriformans, and strain TW-2, are capable of chemolithoautotrophic growth (that is, obtaining energy by the oxidation of inorganic compounds) using Fe(II) as… [Read More]