Applied and Environmental Science
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceMetagenome Mining Reveals Hidden Genomic Diversity of Pelagimyophages in Aquatic EnvironmentsSAR11 clade members are among the most abundant bacteria on Earth. Their study is complicated by their great diversity and difficulties in being grown and manipulated in the laboratory. On the other hand, and due to their extraordinary abundance, metagenomic data sets provide enormous richness of information about these microbes. Given the major role played by phages in the lifestyle and evolution of prokaryotic cells, the contribution...
Editor's Pick Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceValidating the Cyc2 Neutrophilic Iron Oxidation Pathway Using Meta-omics of Zetaproteobacteria Iron Mats at Marine Hydrothermal VentsIron oxides are important components of our soil, water supplies, and ecosystems, as they sequester nutrients, carbon, and metals. Microorganisms can form iron oxides, but it is unclear whether this is a significant mechanism in the environment. Unlike other major microbial energy metabolisms, there is no marker gene for iron oxidation, hindering our ability to track these microbes. Here, we investigate a promising possible iron...
Methods and Protocols | Applied and Environmental ScienceVisualizing Microbial Community Dynamics via a Controllable Soil EnvironmentMicrobial communities are key components of the soil ecosystem. Recent advances in metagenomics and other omics capabilities have expanded our ability to characterize the composition and function of the soil microbiome. However, characterizing the spatial metabolic and morphological diversity of microbial communities remains a challenge due to the dynamic and complex nature of soil microenvironments. The SoilBox system, demonstrated in...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceDynamics of the Physicochemical Characteristics, Microbiota, and Metabolic Functions of Soybean Meal and Corn Mixed Substrates during Two-Stage Solid-State FermentationSolid-state fermentation (SSF) plays pivotal roles not only in human food but also farm animal diets. Soybean meal (SBM) and corn account for approximately 70% of the global feed consumption. However, the nutritional value of conventional SBM and corn mixed substrates (MS) is limited by antinutritional factors, causing substantial economic loss in livestock production. Although emerging studies have reported that SSF can improve the...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceProgressive Microbial Community Networks with Incremental Organic Loading Rates Underlie Higher Anaerobic Digestion PerformanceAD is a biological process widely used for effective waste treatment throughout the world. Biotic interactions among microbes are critical to the assembly and functioning of the microbial community, but the response of microbial interactions to environmental changes and their influence on AD performance are still poorly understood. Using well-replicated time series data of 16S rRNA gene amplicons and functional gene arrays, we...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceNative Plasmid-Encoded Mercury Resistance Genes Are Functional and Demonstrate Natural Transformation in Environmental Bacterial IsolatesHorizontal transfer of mobile genetic elements via natural transformation has been poorly understood in environmental microbes. Here, we confirm the functionality of a native plasmid-encoded mercury resistance operon in a model microbe and then query for the dissemination of this resistance trait via natural transformation into environmental bacterial isolates. We identified 17 strains including Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria...
Editor's Pick Methods and Protocols | Applied and Environmental ScienceMarine Metabolomics: a Method for Nontargeted Measurement of Metabolites in Seawater by Gas Chromatography–Mass SpectrometryNontargeted approaches using metabolomics to analyze metabolites that occur in the oceans is less developed than those for terrestrial and limnic ecosystems. One of the challenges in marine metabolomics is that salt limits metabolite analysis in seawater to methods requiring salt removal. Building on previous sample preparation methods for metabolomics, we developed SeaMet, which overcomes the limitations of salt on metabolite detection...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceQuantifying Methane and Methanol Metabolism of “Methylotuvimicrobium buryatense” 5GB1C under Substrate LimitationMethanotrophic metabolism has been under investigation for decades using biochemical and genetic approaches. Recently, a further step has been taken toward understanding methanotrophic metabolism in a quantitative manner by means of flux balance analysis (FBA), a mathematical approach that predicts fluxes constrained by mass balance and a few experimental measurements. However, no study has previously been undertaken to experimentally...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceUncovering the Diversity and Activity of Methylotrophic Methanogens in Freshwater Wetland SoilsUnderstanding the sources and controls on microbial methane production from wetland soils is critical to global methane emission predictions, particularly in light of changing climatic conditions. Current biogeochemical models of methanogenesis consider only acetoclastic and hydrogenotrophic sources and exclude methylotrophic methanogenesis, potentially underestimating microbial contributions to methane flux. Our multi-omic results...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceStructure Elucidation and Biochemical Characterization of Environmentally Relevant Novel Extradiol Dioxygenases Discovered by a Functional Metagenomics ApproachThe disposal and degradation of xenobiotic compounds have been serious issues due to their recalcitrant properties. Microbial oxygenases are the fundamental enzymes involved in biodegradation that oxidize the substrate by transferring oxygen from molecular oxygen. Among oxygenases, catechol dioxygenases are more versatile in biodegradation and are well studied among the bacterial world. The use of catechol dioxygenases in the field is...