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Permanent Draft Genome Sequence of Desulfurococcus amylolyticus Strain Z-533T, a Peptide and Starch Degrader Isolated from Thermal Springs in the Kamchatka Peninsula and Kunashir Island, Russia

Desulfurococcus amylolyticus Z-533T, a hyperthermophilic crenarcheon, ferments peptide and starch, generating acetate, isobutyrate, isovalerate, CO2, and hydrogen. Unlike D. amylolyticus Z-1312, it cannot use cellulose and is inhibited by hydrogen. The reported draft genome sequence of D. amylolyticus Z-533T will help to understand the molecular basis for these differences. [Read More]

Draft genome and description of Consotaella salsifontis gen. nov. sp. nov., a halophilic, free-living, nitrogen-fixing alphaproteobacterium isolated from an ancient terrestrial saline spring

A free-living, nitrogen-fixing, mesophilic and facultative aerobe, designated strain USBA 369T, was isolated from a terrestrial saline spring of the Colombian Andes. The non-sporulating rods (1.5×0.8 microm) with rounded ends stained Gram-negative and were motile by means of lophotrichous flagella. The strain grew optimally at 30 degrees C, at pH 6.9-7.5 and with 1.5 %… [Read More]

A genomic perspective on stoichiometric regulation of soil carbon cycling

Similar to plant growth, soil carbon (C) cycling is constrained by the availability of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). We hypothesized that stoichiometric control over soil microbial C cycling may be shaped by functional guilds with distinct nutrient substrate preferences. Across a series of rice fields spanning 5-25% soil C (N:P from 1:12 to 1:70),… [Read More]

Capturing the genetic makeup of the active microbiome in situ

More than any other technology, nucleic acid sequencing has enabled microbial ecology studies to be complemented with the data volumes necessary to capture the extent of microbial diversity and dynamics in a wide range of environments. In order to truly understand and predict environmental processes, however, the distinction between active, inactive and dead microbial cells… [Read More]

Succession in the petroleum reservoir microbiome through an oil field production lifecycle

Subsurface petroleum reservoirs are an important component of the deep biosphere where indigenous microorganisms live under extreme conditions and in isolation from the Earth’s surface for millions of years. However, unlike the bulk of the deep biosphere, the petroleum reservoir deep biosphere is subject to extreme anthropogenic perturbation, with the introduction of new electron acceptors,… [Read More]

Feathermoss and epiphytic Nostoc cooperate differently: expanding the spectrum of plant-cyanobacteria symbiosis

Dinitrogen (N2)-fixation by cyanobacteria in symbiosis with feathermosses is the primary pathway of biological nitrogen (N) input into boreal forests. Despite its significance, little is known about the cyanobacterial gene repertoire and regulatory rewiring needed for the establishment and maintenance of the symbiosis. To determine gene acquisitions and regulatory changes allowing cyanobacteria to form and… [Read More]

Droplet microfluidics for synthetic biology

Synthetic biology is an interdisciplinary field that aims to engineer biological systems for useful purposes. Organism engineering often requires the optimization of individual genes and/or entire biological pathways (consisting of multiple genes). Advances in DNA sequencing and synthesis have recently begun to enable the possibility of evaluating thousands of gene variants and hundreds of thousands… [Read More]

RNA-Dependent Cysteine Biosynthesis in Bacteria and Archaea

The diversity of the genetic code systems used by microbes on earth is yet to be elucidated. It is known that certain methanogenic archaea employ an alternative system for cysteine (Cys) biosynthesis and encoding; tRNACys is first acylated with phosphoserine (Sep) by O-phosphoseryl-tRNA synthetase (SepRS) and then converted to Cys-tRNACys by Sep-tRNA:Cys-tRNA synthase (SepCysS). In… [Read More]

Novel approaches in function-driven single-cell genomics

Deeper sequencing and improved bioinformatics in conjunction with single-cell and metagenomic approaches continue to illuminate undercharacterized environmental microbial communities. This has propelled the ‘who is there, and what might they be doing’ paradigm to the uncultivated and has already radically changed the topology of the tree of life and provided key insights into the microbial… [Read More]

Genome Data Provides High Support for Generic Boundaries in Burkholderia Sensu Lato

Although the taxonomy of Burkholderia has been extensively scrutinized, significant uncertainty remains regarding the generic boundaries and composition of this large and heterogeneous taxon. Here we used the amino acid and nucleotide sequences of 106 conserved proteins from 92 species to infer robust maximum likelihood phylogenies with which to investigate the generic structure of Burkholderia… [Read More]