Ancient Chloroflexotas ditched their flagella and other traits when migrating back to the ocean.
The JGI worked with researchers from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to sequence Dehalococcoidia isolate genomes from the Great Boiling Spring in Nevada. (Image: Jonathan K. Covington)
The Science
Scientists have discovered flagella in an unexpected place: hot spring-dwelling bacteria from the phylum Chloroflexota. Research shows that flagella were lost in other forms of Chloroflexota that adapted to marine environments hundreds of millions of years ago.
The Impact
Chloroflexota are bacteria that act like tiny natural engineers with special skills to break down pollutants and recycle carbon. They were part of an ancient lineage of bacteria to migrate from oceans and colonize land. Terrestrial Chloroflexota have certain traits that most marine Chloroflexota lost when they returned to an ocean home. A deeper understanding of how these bacteria evolved could help inform engineering microorganisms for biofuel production and other sustainable applications.
Summary
Hot springs are environments of extremes, where both temperatures and pH levels vary wildly from spring to spring. These biodiversity hotspots harbor specialized microbial communities living in extreme conditions. The microorganisms found there utilize a unique array of chemicals not typically found in oceans or soils.
A recent study published in The ISME Journal focused on a class within Chloroflexota called Dehalococcoidia. Some Dehalococcoidia have a knack for degrading the kind of harmful chemicals found in pesticides and refrigerants. Researchers found a number of surprising traits in Dehalococcoidia inhabiting hot springs. Some of those traits vanished in bacteria that evolved to inhabit marine environments, while echoes of others remain.
Until now, Chloroflexota had not been known to produce flagella — propeller-like structures that enable organisms to swim around. However, genome and metagenomic sequencing conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, a DOE Office of Science User Facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has unveiled these motility tools in hot spring Chloroflexota.
Ocean-dwelling Dehalococcoidia don’t have flagella, meaning they were lost in the evolutionary adaptation to marine environments. These bacteria are so small, it’s possible flagella would be a liability in open water — requiring more energy for the bacteria to orient and swim than they would gain by pursuing nutrients and other resources in the open oceans.
Other surprises in the research include a similar loss of cell walls and a complex pattern of evolution for genes related to eating plant compounds in both the oceanic and hot spring Dehalococcoidia. Since these bacteria lack complete biochemical pathways to break down plant material on their own, they likely cooperate with other microorganisms in their community to do so. In addition, scientists noted that the bacteria have enzymes to synthesize or degrade plant hormones, meaning its land-dwelling counterparts could have the ability to manipulate plant growth.
Across the phylum, diverse Chloroflexota show the ability to respire with or without oxygen, fix nitrogen, and break down organic and inorganic compounds. Studying their diverse metabolic capabilities offer insights into how microbial processes might be harnessed for applications including biofuel production.
Contacts
BER Contact
Ramana Madupu, Ph.D
Program Manager
Biological Systems Sciences Division
Office of Biological and Environmental Research
Office of Science
Department of Energy
[email protected]
PI Contact
Brian Hedlund
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
[email protected]
Funding
The work (proposal: https://doi.org/10.46936/10.25585/60000691, and https://doi.org/10.46936/10.25585/60007554) conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (https://ror.org/04xm1d337), a DOE Office of Science User Facility, is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. Work carried out at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was done under Contract DE-AC52-07NA2734. Funding for this project was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation (DEB 1557042), NASA (80NNSC17KO548), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 92251302, 91951205, and 31970122). Part of this project was supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant to EIT (RGPIN 04345) and Post Graduate Scholarship (552674) to AH.
Publication
Palmer M et al. “Thermophilic Dehalococcoidia with unusual traits shed light on an unexpected past.” The ISME Journal. 2023. 17, 952–966. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-023-01405-0
Related Links
- A Surprise for Chloroflexota — the First Flagella! A JGI podcast minisode
- The JGI Community Science Program: More information about submitting a proposal