Applied and Environmental Science
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceLong-Term Warming in Alaska Enlarges the Diazotrophic Community in Deep SoilsWith the likelihood that changes in global climate will adversely affect the soil C reservoir in the northern circumpolar permafrost zone, an understanding of the potential role of diazotrophic communities in enhancing biological N2 fixation, which constrains both plant production and microbial decomposition in tundra soils, is important in elucidating the responses of soil microbial communities to global climate change. A...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceLarge Circular Plasmids from Groundwater Plasmidomes Span Multiple Incompatibility Groups and Are Enriched in Multimetal Resistance GenesPlasmidomes have been typically studied in environments abundant in bacteria, and this is the first study to explore plasmids from an environment characterized by low cell density. We specifically target groundwater, a significant source of water for human/agriculture use. We used samples from a well-studied site and identified hundreds of circular plasmids, including one of the largest sizes reported in plasmidome studies. The striking...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceFunctional Metagenomics Reveals an Overlooked Diversity and Novel Features of Soil-Derived Bacterial Phosphatases and PhytasesPhosphorus (P) is a key element involved in numerous cellular processes and essential to meet global food demand. Phosphatases play a major role in cell metabolism and contribute to control the release of P from phosphorylated organic compounds, including phytate. Apart from the relationship with pathogenesis and the enormous economic relevance, phosphatases/phytases are also important for reduction of phosphorus pollution. Almost all...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceEngineering Clostridial Aldehyde/Alcohol Dehydrogenase for Selective Butanol ProductionRenewable biofuel represents one of the answers to solving the energy crisis and climate change problems. Butanol produced naturally by clostridia has superior liquid fuel characteristics and thus has the potential to replace gasoline. Due to the lack of efficient genetic manipulation tools, however, clostridial strain improvement has been slower than improvement of other microorganisms. Furthermore, fermentation coproducing various by-...
Observation | Applied and Environmental ScienceTactic Response of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 toward Insoluble Electron AcceptorsPrevious hypotheses of tactic behavior of exoelectrogenic bacteria are based on techniques that do not accurately control the electrochemical potential, such as chemical-in-plug assays or microscopy tracking experiments in two-electrode cells. Here, we have revisited previous experiments and, for the first time, performed microscopy cell-tracking experiments in three-electrode electrochemical cells, with defined electrode potentials....
Editor's Pick Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceEvaluation of Acquired Antibiotic Resistance in Escherichia coli Exposed to Long-Term Low-Shear Modeled Microgravity and Background Antibiotic ExposureStress factors experienced during space include microgravity, sleep deprivation, radiation, isolation, and microbial contamination, all of which can promote immune suppression (1, 2). Under these conditions, the risk of infection from opportunistic pathogens increases significantly, particularly during long-term missions (...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceGenome-Guided Identification of Organohalide-Respiring Deltaproteobacteria from the Marine EnvironmentThe marine environment is a major reservoir for both anthropogenic and natural organohalides, and reductive dehalogenation is thought to be an important process in the overall cycling of these compounds. Here we demonstrate that the capacity of organohalide respiration appears to be widely distributed in members of marine Deltaproteobacteria. The identification of reductive dehalogenase genes in diverse Deltaproteobacteria...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceMetatranscriptomes Reveal That All Three Domains of Life Are Active but Are Dominated by Bacteria in the Fennoscandian Crystalline Granitic Continental Deep BiosphereA newly designed sampling apparatus was used to fix RNA under in situ conditions in the deep continental biosphere and benchmarks a strategy for deep biosphere metatranscriptomic sequencing. This apparatus enabled the identification of active community members and the processes they carry out in this extremely oligotrophic environment. This work presents for the first time evidence of eukaryotic, archaeal, and bacterial...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceSilver and Copper Acute Effects on Membrane Proteins and Impact on Photosynthetic and Respiratory Complexes in BacteriaThe use of metal ions represents a serious threat to the environment and to all living organisms because of the acute toxicity of these ions. Nowadays, silver nanoparticles are one of the most widely used nanoparticles in various industrial and health applications. The antimicrobial effect of nanoparticles is in part related to the released Ag+ ions and their ability to interact with bacterial membranes. Here, we identify,...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceIdentifying and Predicting Novelty in Microbiome StudiesWe introduce two concepts to quantify the novelty of a microbiome. The first, the microbiome novelty score (MNS), allows identification of microbiomes that are especially different from what is already sequenced. The second, the microbiome attention score (MAS), allows identification of microbiomes that have many close neighbors, implying that considerable scientific attention is devoted to their study. By computing a microbiome focus...