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Michael JP, Putt AD, Yang Y, Adams BG, McBride KR, Fan Y, Lowe KA, Ning D, Jagadamma S, Moon JW, Klingeman DM, Zhang P, Fu Y, Hazen TC, Zhou J. Reproducible responses of geochemical and microbial successional patterns in the subsurface to carbon source amendment. WATER RESEARCH 2024; 255:121460. [PMID: 38552495 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2024.121460] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/02/2024] [Revised: 03/10/2024] [Accepted: 03/11/2024] [Indexed: 04/24/2024]
Abstract
Carbon amendments designed to remediate environmental contamination lead to substantial perturbations when injected into the subsurface. For the remediation of uranium contamination, carbon amendments promote reducing conditions to allow microorganisms to reduce uranium to an insoluble, less mobile state. However, the reproducibility of these amendments and underlying microbial community assembly mechanisms have rarely been investigated in the field. In this study, two injections of emulsified vegetable oil were performed in 2009 and 2017 to immobilize uranium in the groundwater at Oak Ridge, TN, USA. Our objectives were to determine whether and how the injections resulted in similar abiotic and biotic responses and their underlying community assembly mechanisms. Both injections caused similar geochemical and microbial succession. Uranium, nitrate, and sulfate concentrations in the groundwater dropped following the injection, and specific microbial taxa responded at roughly the same time points in both injections, including Geobacter, Desulfovibrio, and members of the phylum Comamonadaceae, all of which are well established in uranium, nitrate, and sulfate reduction. Both injections induced a transition from relatively stochastic to more deterministic assembly of microbial taxonomic and phylogenetic community structures based on 16S rRNA gene analysis. We conclude that geochemical and microbial successions after biostimulation are reproducible, likely owing to the selection of similar phylogenetic groups in response to EVO injection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan P Michael
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA; School of Biological Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
| | - Andrew D Putt
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
| | - Yunfeng Yang
- State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Benjamin G Adams
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
| | - Kathryn R McBride
- Department of Microbiology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
| | - Yupeng Fan
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA; School of Biological Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
| | - Kenneth A Lowe
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
| | - Daliang Ning
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA; School of Biological Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
| | - Sindhu Jagadamma
- Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
| | - Ji Won Moon
- National Minerals Information Center, United States Geological Survey, Reston, VA, USA
| | - Dawn M Klingeman
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
| | - Ping Zhang
- Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Ying Fu
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA; School of Biological Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
| | - Terry C Hazen
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA; Department of Microbiology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA; Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA; Department of Civil and Environmental Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA; Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
| | - Jizhong Zhou
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA; School of Biological Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA; School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA; Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
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2
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Goff JL, Szink EG, Durrence KL, Lui LM, Nielsen TN, Kuehl JV, Hunt KA, Chandonia JM, Huang J, Thorgersen MP, Poole FL, Stahl DA, Chakraborty R, Deutschbauer AM, Arkin AP, Adams MWW. Genomic and environmental controls on Castellaniella biogeography in an anthropogenically disturbed subsurface. ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOME 2024; 19:26. [PMID: 38671539 PMCID: PMC11046850 DOI: 10.1186/s40793-024-00570-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2024] [Accepted: 04/19/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024]
Abstract
Castellaniella species have been isolated from a variety of mixed-waste environments including the nitrate and multiple metal-contaminated subsurface at the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR). Previous studies examining microbial community composition and nitrate removal at ORR during biostimulation efforts reported increased abundances of members of the Castellaniella genus concurrent with increased denitrification rates. Thus, we asked how genomic and abiotic factors control the Castellaniella biogeography at the site to understand how these factors may influence nitrate transformation in an anthropogenically impacted setting. We report the isolation and characterization of several Castellaniella strains from the ORR subsurface. Five of these isolates match at 100% identity (at the 16S rRNA gene V4 region) to two Castellaniella amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), ASV1 and ASV2, that have persisted in the ORR subsurface for at least 2 decades. However, ASV2 has consistently higher relative abundance in samples taken from the site and was also the dominant blooming denitrifier population during a prior biostimulation effort. We found that the ASV2 representative strain has greater resistance to mixed metal stress than the ASV1 representative strains. We attribute this resistance, in part, to the large number of unique heavy metal resistance genes identified on a genomic island in the ASV2 representative genome. Additionally, we suggest that the relatively lower fitness of ASV1 may be connected to the loss of the nitrous oxide reductase (nos) operon (and associated nitrous oxide reductase activity) due to the insertion at this genomic locus of a mobile genetic element carrying copper resistance genes. This study demonstrates the value of integrating genomic, environmental, and phenotypic data to characterize the biogeography of key microorganisms in contaminated sites.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer L Goff
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA
- State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY, USA
| | - Elizabeth G Szink
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA
| | - Konnor L Durrence
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA
| | - Lauren M Lui
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Torben N Nielsen
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Jennifer V Kuehl
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Kristopher A Hunt
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - John-Marc Chandonia
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Jiawen Huang
- Earth and Environmental Science Area, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Michael P Thorgersen
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA
| | - Farris L Poole
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA
| | - David A Stahl
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Romy Chakraborty
- Earth and Environmental Science Area, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Adam M Deutschbauer
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Adam P Arkin
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Michael W W Adams
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA.
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3
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Hunt KA, Carr AV, Otwell AE, Valenzuela JJ, Walker KS, Dixon ER, Lui LM, Nielsen TN, Bowman S, von Netzer F, Moon JW, Schadt CW, Rodriguez M, Lowe K, Joyner D, Davis KJ, Wu X, Chakraborty R, Fields MW, Zhou J, Hazen TC, Arkin AP, Wankel SD, Baliga NS, Stahl DA. Contribution of Microorganisms with the Clade II Nitrous Oxide Reductase to Suppression of Surface Emissions of Nitrous Oxide. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2024; 58:7056-7065. [PMID: 38608141 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c07972] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/14/2024]
Abstract
The sources and sinks of nitrous oxide, as control emissions to the atmosphere, are generally poorly constrained for most environmental systems. Initial depth-resolved analysis of nitrous oxide flux from observation wells and the proximal surface within a nitrate contaminated aquifer system revealed high subsurface production but little escape from the surface. To better understand the environmental controls of production and emission at this site, we used a combination of isotopic, geochemical, and molecular analyses to show that chemodenitrification and bacterial denitrification are major sources of nitrous oxide in this subsurface, where low DO, low pH, and high nitrate are correlated with significant nitrous oxide production. Depth-resolved metagenomes showed that consumption of nitrous oxide near the surface was correlated with an enrichment of Clade II nitrous oxide reducers, consistent with a growing appreciation of their importance in controlling release of nitrous oxide to the atmosphere. Our work also provides evidence for the reduction of nitrous oxide at a pH of 4, well below the generally accepted limit of pH 5.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristopher A Hunt
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, United States
| | - Alex V Carr
- Department of Molecular Engineering Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98105, United States
- Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, Washington 98109, United States
| | - Anne E Otwell
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, United States
| | | | - Kathleen S Walker
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830, United States
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, United States
| | - Emma R Dixon
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830, United States
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, United States
| | - Lauren M Lui
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Torben N Nielsen
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Samuel Bowman
- Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02540, United States
| | - Frederick von Netzer
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, United States
| | - Ji-Won Moon
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830, United States
| | - Christopher W Schadt
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830, United States
| | - Miguel Rodriguez
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830, United States
| | - Kenneth Lowe
- Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830, United States
| | - Dominique Joyner
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830, United States
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, United States
| | - Katherine J Davis
- Center for Biofilm Engineering, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana 59717, United States
| | - Xiaoqin Wu
- Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Romy Chakraborty
- Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Matthew W Fields
- Center for Biofilm Engineering, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana 59717, United States
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana 59717, United States
| | - Jizhong Zhou
- Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 73019, United States
- State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Terry C Hazen
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830, United States
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, United States
| | - Adam P Arkin
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - Scott D Wankel
- Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02540, United States
| | - Nitin S Baliga
- Department of Molecular Engineering Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98105, United States
- Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, Washington 98109, United States
| | - David A Stahl
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, United States
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4
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Walsh C, Stallard-Olivera E, Fierer N. Nine (not so simple) steps: a practical guide to using machine learning in microbial ecology. mBio 2024; 15:e0205023. [PMID: 38126787 PMCID: PMC10865974 DOI: 10.1128/mbio.02050-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Due to the complex nature of microbiome data, the field of microbial ecology has many current and potential uses for machine learning (ML) modeling. With the increased use of predictive ML models across many disciplines, including microbial ecology, there is extensive published information on the specific ML algorithms available and how those algorithms have been applied. Thus, our goal is not to summarize the breadth of ML models available or compare their performances. Rather, our goal is to provide more concrete and actionable information to guide microbial ecologists in how to select, run, and interpret ML algorithms to predict the taxa or genes associated with particular sample categories or environmental gradients of interest. Such microbial data often have unique characteristics that require careful consideration of how to apply ML models and how to interpret the associated results. This review is intended for practicing microbial ecologists who may be unfamiliar with some of the intricacies of ML models. We provide examples and discuss common opportunities and pitfalls specific to applying ML models to the types of data sets most frequently collected by microbial ecologists.
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Affiliation(s)
- Corinne Walsh
- Cooperative Institute of Research in Environmental Sciences, CU Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, CU Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA
| | - Elías Stallard-Olivera
- Cooperative Institute of Research in Environmental Sciences, CU Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, CU Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA
| | - Noah Fierer
- Cooperative Institute of Research in Environmental Sciences, CU Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, CU Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA
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5
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Ning D, Wang Y, Fan Y, Wang J, Van Nostrand JD, Wu L, Zhang P, Curtis DJ, Tian R, Lui L, Hazen TC, Alm EJ, Fields MW, Poole F, Adams MWW, Chakraborty R, Stahl DA, Adams PD, Arkin AP, He Z, Zhou J. Environmental stress mediates groundwater microbial community assembly. Nat Microbiol 2024; 9:490-501. [PMID: 38212658 DOI: 10.1038/s41564-023-01573-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2023] [Accepted: 11/28/2023] [Indexed: 01/13/2024]
Abstract
Community assembly describes how different ecological processes shape microbial community composition and structure. How environmental factors impact community assembly remains elusive. Here we sampled microbial communities and >200 biogeochemical variables in groundwater at the Oak Ridge Field Research Center, a former nuclear waste disposal site, and developed a theoretical framework to conceptualize the relationships between community assembly processes and environmental stresses. We found that stochastic assembly processes were critical (>60% on average) in shaping community structure, but their relative importance decreased as stress increased. Dispersal limitation and 'drift' related to random birth and death had negative correlations with stresses, whereas the selection processes leading to dissimilar communities increased with stresses, primarily related to pH, cobalt and molybdenum. Assembly mechanisms also varied greatly among different phylogenetic groups. Our findings highlight the importance of microbial dispersal limitation and environmental heterogeneity in ecosystem restoration and management.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daliang Ning
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
| | - Yajiao Wang
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
| | - Yupeng Fan
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
| | - Jianjun Wang
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
- State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China
| | - Joy D Van Nostrand
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
| | - Liyou Wu
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
| | - Ping Zhang
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
- Alkek Center for Metagenomics and Microbiome Research, Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Daniel J Curtis
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
| | - Renmao Tian
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
- Institute for Food Safety and Health, Illinois Institute of Technology, Bedford Park, IL, USA
| | - Lauren Lui
- Division of Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Terry C Hazen
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Bredesen Center, Department of Civil and Environmental Sciences, Center for Environmental Biotechnology, and Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Eric J Alm
- Department of Biological Engineering, Center for Microbiome Informatics and Therapeutics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Matthew W Fields
- Center for Biofilm Engineering and Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA
| | - Farris Poole
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
| | - Michael W W Adams
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
| | - Romy Chakraborty
- Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - David A Stahl
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Paul D Adams
- Division of Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Adam P Arkin
- Division of Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Zhili He
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
- Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory, Zhuhai, China
| | - Jizhong Zhou
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA.
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA.
- Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
- School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA.
- School of Computer Science, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA.
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6
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Schaerer L, Ghannam R, Olson A, Van Camp A, Techtmann S. Persistence of location-specific microbial signatures on boats during voyages. MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN 2024; 199:115884. [PMID: 38118397 DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115884] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2023] [Revised: 11/21/2023] [Accepted: 12/01/2023] [Indexed: 12/22/2023]
Abstract
Objects collect microorganisms from their surroundings and develop a microbial "fingerprint" that may be useful for determining an object's past location (provenance). It may be possible to use ubiquitous microorganisms for forensics or as environmental sensors. Here, we use microbial communities in the Chesapeake Bay region to demonstrate the use of natural microorganisms as biological sensors to determine the past location of boats. The microbiomes of two boats and of the open water were sampled as these vessels traveled from the Port of Baltimore to the Port of Norfolk, and back to Baltimore. 16S rRNA sequencing was performed to identify microorganisms. Differential abundance and machine learning analyses were utilized to identify microbial signatures and predicted probabilities which were used to determine the vessel's previous location. The work presented here provides a better understanding of how microbes in aquatic systems can be leveraged as utility for object biosensors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Schaerer
- Department of Biological Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931, USA
| | - Ryan Ghannam
- Department of Biological Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931, USA
| | - Allison Olson
- Department of Biological Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931, USA
| | - Annika Van Camp
- Department of Biological Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931, USA
| | - Stephen Techtmann
- Department of Biological Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931, USA.
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7
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Yu X, Yin Y, Wu Z, Cao H. An Assessment of Human Opportunistic Pathogenic Bacteria on Daily Necessities in Nanjing City during Plum Rain Season. Microorganisms 2024; 12:260. [PMID: 38399664 PMCID: PMC10892523 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms12020260] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2023] [Revised: 01/17/2024] [Accepted: 01/23/2024] [Indexed: 02/25/2024] Open
Abstract
The plum rain season is a special climatic phenomenon in east Asia, which is characterized by persistent rainfall, a high temperature, and humidity, providing suitable environmental conditions for certain pathogenic bacteria, thus increasing the incidence of respiratory, gastrointestinal, and urinary diseases. However, studies on human opportunistic pathogenic bacteria communities during the plum rain season are still limited. In this study, the characteristics of human opportunistic pathogenic bacterial communities on daily necessities during the non-plum and plum rain seasons were investigated using high-throughput sequencing technology. The results revealed that the relative abundance of human opportunistic pathogenic bacteria was higher in the plum rain season (cotton cloth: 2.469%, electric bicycles: 0.724%, rice: 3.737%, and washbasins: 5.005%) than in the non-plum rain season (cotton cloth: 1.425%, electric bicycles: 0.601%, rice: 2.426%, and washbasins: 4.801%). Both temperature and relative humidity affected human opportunistic pathogenic bacterial communities. Stochastic processes dominated the assembly process of human opportunistic pathogenic bacterial communities, and undominated processes prevailed. The stability of the co-occurrence network was higher in the non-plum rain season than that in the plum rain season. In addition, the proportion of deterministic processes showed the same trend as the complexity of the co-occurrence network.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaowei Yu
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Environmental Microbiology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China; (X.Y.); (Y.Y.)
| | - Yifan Yin
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Environmental Microbiology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China; (X.Y.); (Y.Y.)
| | - Zuoyou Wu
- Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 211112, China
| | - Hui Cao
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Environmental Microbiology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China; (X.Y.); (Y.Y.)
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8
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Goff JL, Lui LM, Nielsen TN, Poole FL, Smith HJ, Walker KF, Hazen TC, Fields MW, Arkin AP, Adams MWW. Mixed waste contamination selects for a mobile genetic element population enriched in multiple heavy metal resistance genes. ISME COMMUNICATIONS 2024; 4:ycae064. [PMID: 38800128 PMCID: PMC11128244 DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycae064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2023] [Revised: 03/11/2024] [Indexed: 05/29/2024]
Abstract
Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) like plasmids, viruses, and transposable elements can provide fitness benefits to their hosts for survival in the presence of environmental stressors. Heavy metal resistance genes (HMRGs) are frequently observed on MGEs, suggesting that MGEs may be an important driver of adaptive evolution in environments contaminated with heavy metals. Here, we report the meta-mobilome of the heavy metal-contaminated regions of the Oak Ridge Reservation subsurface. This meta-mobilome was compared with one derived from samples collected from unimpacted regions of the Oak Ridge Reservation subsurface. We assembled 1615 unique circularized DNA elements that we propose to be MGEs. The circular elements from the highly contaminated subsurface were enriched in HMRG clusters relative to those from the nearby unimpacted regions. Additionally, we found that these HMRGs were associated with Gamma and Betaproteobacteria hosts in the contaminated subsurface and potentially facilitate the persistence and dominance of these taxa in this region. Finally, the HMRGs were associated with conjugative elements, suggesting their potential for future lateral transfer. We demonstrate how our understanding of MGE ecology, evolution, and function can be enhanced through the genomic context provided by completed MGE assemblies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer L Goff
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, United States
- Department of Chemistry, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY 13210, United States
| | - Lauren M Lui
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
| | - Torben N Nielsen
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
| | - Farris L Poole
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, United States
| | - Heidi J Smith
- Center for Biofilm Engineering, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, United States
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, United States
| | - Kathleen F Walker
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37916, United States
| | - Terry C Hazen
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37916, United States
- Genome Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, United States
| | - Matthew W Fields
- Center for Biofilm Engineering, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, United States
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, United States
| | - Adam P Arkin
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
| | - Michael W W Adams
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, United States
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9
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Thorgersen MP, Goff JL, Poole FL, Walker KF, Putt AD, Lui LM, Hazen TC, Arkin AP, Adams MWW. Mixed nitrate and metal contamination influences operational speciation of toxic and essential elements. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION (BARKING, ESSEX : 1987) 2023; 338:122674. [PMID: 37793542 DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122674] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2023] [Revised: 08/18/2023] [Accepted: 09/30/2023] [Indexed: 10/06/2023]
Abstract
Environmental contamination constrains microbial communities impacting diversity and total metabolic activity. The former S-3 Ponds contamination site at Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR), TN, has elevated concentrations of nitric acid and multiple metals from decades of processing nuclear material. To determine the nature of the metal contamination in the sediment, a three-step sequential chemical extraction (BCR) was performed on sediment segments from a core located upgradient (EB271, non-contaminated) and one downgradient (EB106, contaminated) of the S-3 Ponds. The resulting exchangeable, reducing, and oxidizing fractions were analyzed for 18 different elements. Comparison of the two cores revealed changes in operational speciation for several elements caused by the contamination. Those present from the S-3 Ponds, including Al, U, Co, Cu, Ni, and Cd, were not only elevated in concentration in the EB106 core but were also operationally more available with increased mobility in the acidic environment. Other elements, including Mg, Ca, P, V, As, and Mo, were less operationally available in EB106 having decreased concentrations in the exchangeable fraction. The bioavailability of essential macro nutrients Mg, Ca, and P from the two types of sediment was determined using three metal-tolerant bacteria previously isolated from ORR. Mg and Ca were available from both sediments for all three strains; however, P was not bioavailable from either sediment for any strain. The decreased operational speciation of P in contaminated ORR sediment may increase the dependence of the microbial community on other pools of P or select for microorganisms with increased P scavenging capabilities. Hence, the microbial community at the former S-3 Ponds contamination site may be constrained not only by increased toxic metal concentrations but also by the availability of essential elements, including P.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael P Thorgersen
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
| | - Jennifer L Goff
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
| | - Farris L Poole
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
| | - Kathleen F Walker
- Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA.
| | - Andrew D Putt
- Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA.
| | - Lauren M Lui
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
| | - Terry C Hazen
- Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA; BioSciences Division, Oak Ridge National Lab, Oak Ridge, TN, USA; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA.
| | - Adam P Arkin
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA; Department of Bioengineering, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
| | - Michael W W Adams
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
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10
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Simister RL, Iulianella Phillips BP, Wickham AP, Cayer EM, Hart CJR, Winterburn PA, Crowe SA. DNA sequencing, microbial indicators, and the discovery of buried kimberlites. COMMUNICATIONS EARTH & ENVIRONMENT 2023; 4:387. [PMID: 38665197 PMCID: PMC11041713 DOI: 10.1038/s43247-023-01020-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2023] [Accepted: 09/19/2023] [Indexed: 04/28/2024]
Abstract
Population growth and technological advancements are placing growing demand on mineral resources. New and innovative exploration technologies that improve detection of deeply buried mineralization and host rocks are required to meet these demands. Here we used diamondiferous kimberlite ore bodies as a test case and show that DNA amplicon sequencing of soil microbial communities resolves anomalies in microbial community composition and structure that reflect the surface expression of kimberlites buried under 10 s of meters of overburden. Indicator species derived from laboratory amendment experiments were employed in an exploration survey in which the species distributions effectively delineated the surface expression of buried kimberlites. Additional indicator species derived directly from field observations improved the blind discovery of kimberlites buried beneath similar overburden types. Application of DNA sequence-based analyses of soil microbial communities to mineral deposit exploration provides a powerful illustration of how genomics technologies can be leveraged in the discovery of critical new resources.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachel L. Simister
- Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3 Canada
- Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada
| | - Bianca P. Iulianella Phillips
- Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada
- MDRU-Mineral Deposit Research Unit, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada
| | - Andrew P. Wickham
- Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada
- MDRU-Mineral Deposit Research Unit, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada
| | - Erika M. Cayer
- Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada
- MDRU-Mineral Deposit Research Unit, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada
| | - Craig J. R. Hart
- Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada
- MDRU-Mineral Deposit Research Unit, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada
| | - Peter A. Winterburn
- Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada
- MDRU-Mineral Deposit Research Unit, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada
| | - Sean A. Crowe
- Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3 Canada
- Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada
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11
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Zeng J, Wu R, Peng T, Li Q, Wang Q, Wu Y, Song X, Lin X. Low-temperature thermally enhanced bioremediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-contaminated soil: Effects on fate, toxicity and bacterial communities. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION (BARKING, ESSEX : 1987) 2023; 335:122247. [PMID: 37482336 DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122247] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2023] [Revised: 07/19/2023] [Accepted: 07/20/2023] [Indexed: 07/25/2023]
Abstract
Remediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-contaminated soil using thermal desorption technology typically requires very high temperatures, necessitating coupled microbial treatment for energy and cost reduction. This study investigated the fate and toxicity of PAHs as well as the responses of microbial communities following thermal treatment within a low temperature range. The optimal temperature for PAH mineralization was 20-28 °C, within the growth range of most mesophilic microorganisms. By contrast, 50 °C treatment almost completely inhibited PAH mineralization but resulted in the greatest detoxification effect particularly for cardiotoxicity and nephrotoxicity. A potential increase in toxicity was observed at 28 °C. Co-metabolism and non-extractable residue formation may play an interdependent role in thermally enhanced bioremediation. Moreover, alterations in bacterial communities were strongly associated with PAH mineralization and zebrafish toxicity, revealing that soil microorganisms play a direct role in PAH mineralization and served as ecological receptors reflecting changes in toxicity. Network analysis revealed that Firmicutes formed specific ecological communities at high temperature, whereas Acidobacteria and Proteobacteria act as primary PAH degraders at moderate temperature. These findings will enable better integration of strategies for thermal and microbial treatments in soil remediation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun Zeng
- Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing East Road, 71 Nanjing, 210008, China
| | - Ruini Wu
- Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing East Road, 71 Nanjing, 210008, China
| | - Tingting Peng
- Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing East Road, 71 Nanjing, 210008, China
| | - Qigang Li
- Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing East Road, 71 Nanjing, 210008, China
| | - Qing Wang
- Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing East Road, 71 Nanjing, 210008, China
| | - Yucheng Wu
- Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing East Road, 71 Nanjing, 210008, China
| | - Xin Song
- Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing East Road, 71 Nanjing, 210008, China
| | - Xiangui Lin
- Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing East Road, 71 Nanjing, 210008, China.
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12
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Liu Z, Zhuang J, Zheng K, Luo C. Differential response of the soil nutrients, soil bacterial community structure and metabolic functions to different risk areas in Lead-Zine tailings. Front Microbiol 2023; 14:1131770. [PMID: 37779699 PMCID: PMC10536257 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1131770] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/26/2022] [Accepted: 08/17/2023] [Indexed: 10/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Rapid growth in the mining industry has brought about a large formation of tailings, which result in serious destruction of the ecological environment and severe soil pollution problems. This study assesses soil nutrients, soil bacterial community and soil microbes' metabolic function in heavily polluted areas (W1), moderately polluted areas (W2), lightly polluted areas (W3) and clean areas (CK) using 16S Illumina sequencing. The results of this study showed that compared with CK, a severe loss of soil nutrients and richness of OTUs (Chao1 and ACE indices) were observed with the aggravated pollution of tailings. The Chao1 and ACE indices in the W1 group decreased significantly by 15.53 and 16.03%, respectively, (p < 0.01). Besides, the relative abundance of Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria was high whereas and relative abundance of Chloroflexi in the polluted areas. Among them, W1 groups increased significantly the relative abundance of Actinobacteria and decreased significantly the relative abundance of Chloroflexi, these can be used as indicator phyla for changes in soil community structures under polluted stress. Tax4 Fun analysis showed that W1 groups affected the soil bacterial community and altered the primary types of biological metabolism in polluted areas. Tailings have adverse impacts on soil bacterial community and metabolic functions, and the deterioration in soil quality is dependent on the levels of tailings pollution. Cumulatively, this study provides valuable information on the bacterial community structure and metabolic functions in the tailing polluted soil.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jiayao Zhuang
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Sustainable Forestry in Southern China of Jiangsu Province, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
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13
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Wang L, Jiao Y, Bi Y, Hu Y, Jiang Y, Wang S, Wang S. Nodulation number tempers the relative importance of stochastic processes in the assembly of soybean root-associated communities. ISME COMMUNICATIONS 2023; 3:89. [PMID: 37640896 PMCID: PMC10462722 DOI: 10.1038/s43705-023-00296-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2023] [Revised: 08/07/2023] [Accepted: 08/09/2023] [Indexed: 08/31/2023]
Abstract
Identifying the ecological forces that structure root-associated microbial communities is an essential step toward more sustainable agriculture. Legumes are widely utilized as model plants to study selective forces and their functioning in plant-microbial interactions owing to their ability to establish mutualism with rhizobia. Root nodules act as symbiotic organs to optimize the cost-benefit balance in this mutualistic relationship by modulating the number of nodules. However, it is not known whether the number of nodules is related to the structure of root-associated bacterial communities. Here, the root-associated bacterial communities of soybean grown in native soil by means of soybean cultivars with super- or normal nodulation were investigated across four developmental stages. We compared ecological processes between communities and found decreased relative importance of neutral processes for super-nodulating soybean, although the overall structures resembled those of normal-nodulating soybean. We identified the generalist core bacterial populations in each root-associated compartment, that are shared across root-associated niches, and persist through developmental stages. Within core bacterial species, the relative abundances of bacterial species in the rhizosphere microbiome were linked to host-plant functional traits and can be used to predict these traits from microbes using machine learning algorithms. These findings broaden the comprehensive understanding of the ecological forces and associations of microbiotas in various root-associated compartments and provide novel insights to integrate beneficial plant microbiomes into agricultural production to enhance plant performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lei Wang
- Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology in Chinese Ministry of Education, Northeast Agricultural University, 150030, Harbin, PR China
- School of Resources and Environment, Northeast Agricultural University, 150030, Harbin, PR China
| | - Yan Jiao
- Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology in Chinese Ministry of Education, Northeast Agricultural University, 150030, Harbin, PR China
| | - Yingdong Bi
- Institute of Crop Cultivation and Tillage, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 150028, Harbin, PR China
| | - Yanli Hu
- Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology in Chinese Ministry of Education, Northeast Agricultural University, 150030, Harbin, PR China
| | - Yan Jiang
- Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology in Chinese Ministry of Education, Northeast Agricultural University, 150030, Harbin, PR China
| | - Shaodong Wang
- Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology in Chinese Ministry of Education, Northeast Agricultural University, 150030, Harbin, PR China.
| | - Sui Wang
- Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology in Chinese Ministry of Education, Northeast Agricultural University, 150030, Harbin, PR China.
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14
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Leontidou K, Rubel V, Stoeck T. Comparing quantile regression spline analyses and supervised machine learning for environmental quality assessment at coastal marine aquaculture installations. PeerJ 2023; 11:e15425. [PMID: 37334127 PMCID: PMC10274583 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.15425] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2022] [Accepted: 04/25/2023] [Indexed: 06/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Organic enrichment associated with marine finfish aquaculture is a local stressor of marine coastal ecosystems. To maintain ecosystem services, the implementation of biomonitoring programs focusing on benthic diversity is required. Traditionally, impact-indices are determined by extracting and identifying benthic macroinvertebrates from samples. However, this is a time-consuming and expensive method with low upscaling potential. A more rapid, inexpensive, and robust method to infer the environmental quality of marine environments is eDNA metabarcoding of bacterial communities. To infer the environmental quality of coastal habitats from metabarcoding data, two taxonomy-free approaches have been successfully applied for different geographical regions and monitoring goals, namely quantile regression splines (QRS) and supervised machine learning (SML). However, their comparative performance remains untested for monitoring the impact of organic enrichment introduced by aquaculture on marine coastal environments. We compared the performance of QRS and SML using bacterial metabarcoding data to infer the environmental quality of 230 aquaculture samples collected from seven farms in Norway and seven farms in Scotland along an organic enrichment gradient. As a measure of environmental quality, we used the Infaunal Quality Index (IQI) calculated from benthic macrofauna data (reference index). The QRS analysis plotted the abundance of amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) as a function to the IQI from which the ASVs with a defined abundance peak were assigned to eco-groups and a molecular IQI was subsequently calculated. In contrast, the SML approach built a random forest model to directly predict the macrofauna-based IQI. Our results show that both QRS and SML perform well in inferring the environmental quality with 89% and 90% accuracy, respectively. For both geographic regions, there was high correspondence between the reference IQI and both the inferred molecular IQIs (p < 0.001), with the SML model showing a higher coefficient of determination compared to QRS. Among the 20 most important ASVs identified by the SML approach, 15 were congruent with the good quality spline ASV indicators identified via QRS for both Norwegian and Scottish salmon farms. More research on the response of the ASVs to organic enrichment and the co-influence of other environmental parameters is necessary to eventually select the most powerful stressor-specific indicators. Even though both approaches are promising to infer environmental quality based on metabarcoding data, SML showed to be more powerful in handling the natural variability. For the improvement of the SML model, addition of new samples is still required, as background noise introduced by high spatio-temporal variability can be reduced. Overall, we recommend the development of a powerful SML approach that will be onwards applied for monitoring the impact of aquaculture on marine ecosystems based on eDNA metabarcoding data.
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15
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von Meijenfeldt FAB, Hogeweg P, Dutilh BE. A social niche breadth score reveals niche range strategies of generalists and specialists. Nat Ecol Evol 2023; 7:768-781. [PMID: 37012375 PMCID: PMC10172124 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02027-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2022] [Accepted: 02/27/2023] [Indexed: 04/05/2023]
Abstract
Generalists can survive in many environments, whereas specialists are restricted to a single environment. Although a classical concept in ecology, niche breadth has remained challenging to quantify for microorganisms because it depends on an objective definition of the environment. Here, by defining the environment of a microorganism as the community it resides in, we integrated information from over 22,000 environmental sequencing samples to derive a quantitative measure of the niche, which we call social niche breadth. At the level of genera, we explored niche range strategies throughout the prokaryotic tree of life. We found that social generalists include opportunists that stochastically dominate local communities, whereas social specialists are stable but low in abundance. Social generalists have a more diverse and open pan-genome than social specialists, but we found no global correlation between social niche breadth and genome size. Instead, we observed two distinct evolutionary strategies, whereby specialists have relatively small genomes in habitats with low local diversity, but relatively large genomes in habitats with high local diversity. Together, our analysis shines data-driven light on microbial niche range strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- F A Bastiaan von Meijenfeldt
- Theoretical Biology and Bioinformatics, Department of Biology, Science for Life, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Texel, the Netherlands
| | - Paulien Hogeweg
- Theoretical Biology and Bioinformatics, Department of Biology, Science for Life, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Bas E Dutilh
- Theoretical Biology and Bioinformatics, Department of Biology, Science for Life, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
- Institute of Biodiversity, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Cluster of Excellence Balance of the Microverse, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany.
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16
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Yang R, Ma G, Liu C, Wang C, Kang X, Wu M, Zhang B. Effects of different heavy metal pollution levels on microbial community structure and risk assessment in Zn-Pb mining soils. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL 2023; 30:52749-52761. [PMID: 36843164 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-023-26074-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2022] [Accepted: 02/18/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Heavy metal contamination in soils seriously threatens human health and aggravates the global pollution burden. In this study, we investigated the risk of heavy metal contamination in soils at a Zn-Pb mineral processing plant in Longnan, China, and the effects of different heavy metal contamination levels on diverse microbial communities. Statistical analysis showed that, except for Ni, the average content of all detected metals (Zn, Pb, As, Cu, Cd, Hg) in the soil was higher than the background value of soil in the study area, which was most seriously contaminated with Pb and As. Comparison of functional divisions showed that heavy metal soil contamination was most serious in the raw material stacking area and the production area. Interpolation analysis showed that areas closer to the wastewater discharge area had higher contents of each heavy metal and were more seriously polluted. From the point of pollution index, the risk of heavy metal soil pollution in the study area was very high (RI = 2845.24, i.e., > 600), with Cd and Hg being the most serious pollutants compared with other heavy metals. Microbial community abundance, diversity, and structure differed at different levels of heavy metal contamination. The community diversity of bacteria decreased with increasing heavy metal concentrations, while no significant change in fungi was observed. Evidence from variation redundancy analysis (RDA) and the Spearman correlation analysis showed that the leading factors affecting microbial community composition were Cu, Cd, Hg, and pH. Actinobacteria and Gemmatimonadetes at the uncontaminated level (CL) were significantly and negatively correlated with the concentrations of Cu, Zn, Cd, and Pb. Proteobacteria and Chloroflexi at the severely contaminated level (SL) were significantly correlated with pH and Hg. However, heavy metal contamination had less effect on most of the dominant fungi. In conclusion, microbial communities such as Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, and Ascomycota showed greater tolerance to heavy metals. These results could be used as important references for the remediation of heavy metal-contaminated soils.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruiqi Yang
- College of Urban Environment, Lanzhou City University, Lanzhou, 730070, China.
| | - Gaogao Ma
- Lanzhou Mineral Exploration Institute, Gansu Nonferrous Metals Geological Prospecting Bureau, Lanzhou, 730000, China
| | - Chenglong Liu
- Lanzhou Mineral Exploration Institute, Gansu Nonferrous Metals Geological Prospecting Bureau, Lanzhou, 730000, China
| | - Chao Wang
- College of City Construction, Lanzhou City University, Lanzhou, 730070, China
| | - Xiaoyang Kang
- College of Urban Environment, Lanzhou City University, Lanzhou, 730070, China
| | - Minghui Wu
- Key Laboratory of Soil Ecology and Health in Universities of Yunnan Province, School of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650091, China
| | - Binglin Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China
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17
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Goff JL, Chen Y, Thorgersen MP, Hoang LT, Poole FL, Szink EG, Siuzdak G, Petzold CJ, Adams MWW. Mixed heavy metal stress induces global iron starvation response. THE ISME JOURNAL 2023; 17:382-392. [PMID: 36572723 PMCID: PMC9938188 DOI: 10.1038/s41396-022-01351-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2022] [Revised: 12/08/2022] [Accepted: 12/13/2022] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Multiple heavy metal contamination is an increasingly common global problem. Heavy metals have the potential to disrupt microbially mediated biogeochemical cycling. However, systems-level studies on the effects of combinations of heavy metals on bacteria are lacking. For this study, we focused on the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR; Oak Ridge, TN, USA) subsurface which is contaminated with several heavy metals and high concentrations of nitrate. Using a native Bacillus cereus isolate that represents a dominant species at this site, we assessed the combined impact of eight metal contaminants, all at site-relevant concentrations, on cell processes through an integrated multi-omics approach that included discovery proteomics, targeted metabolomics, and targeted gene-expression profiling. The combination of eight metals impacted cell physiology in a manner that could not have been predicted from summing phenotypic responses to the individual metals. Exposure to the metal mixture elicited a global iron starvation response not observed during individual metal exposures. This disruption of iron homeostasis resulted in decreased activity of the iron-cofactor-containing nitrate and nitrite reductases, both of which are important in biological nitrate removal at the site. We propose that the combinatorial effects of simultaneous exposure to multiple heavy metals is an underappreciated yet significant form of cell stress in the environment with the potential to disrupt global nutrient cycles and to impede bioremediation efforts at mixed waste sites. Our work underscores the need to shift from single- to multi-metal studies for assessing and predicting the impacts of complex contaminants on microbial systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer L. Goff
- grid.213876.90000 0004 1936 738XDepartment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA USA
| | - Yan Chen
- grid.184769.50000 0001 2231 4551Biological Systems and Engineering, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA USA
| | - Michael P. Thorgersen
- grid.213876.90000 0004 1936 738XDepartment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA USA
| | - Linh T. Hoang
- grid.214007.00000000122199231Scripps Center for Metabolomics, Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA USA
| | - Farris L. Poole
- grid.213876.90000 0004 1936 738XDepartment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA USA
| | - Elizabeth G. Szink
- grid.213876.90000 0004 1936 738XDepartment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA USA
| | - Gary Siuzdak
- grid.214007.00000000122199231Scripps Center for Metabolomics, Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA USA
| | - Christopher J. Petzold
- grid.184769.50000 0001 2231 4551Biological Systems and Engineering, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA USA
| | - Michael W. W. Adams
- grid.213876.90000 0004 1936 738XDepartment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA USA
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18
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Wang C, Yao Z, Zhan P, Yi X, Chen J, Xiong J. Significant tipping points of sediment microeukaryotes forewarn increasing antibiotic pollution. J Environ Sci (China) 2023; 124:429-439. [PMID: 36182151 DOI: 10.1016/j.jes.2021.10.031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2021] [Revised: 10/27/2021] [Accepted: 10/27/2021] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Antibiotic pollution imposes urgent threats to public health and microbial-mediated ecological processes. Existing studies have primarily focused on bacterial responses to antibiotic pollution, but they ignored the microeukaryotic counterpart, though microeukaryotes are functionally important (e.g., predators and saprophytes) in microbial ecology. Herein, we explored how the assembly of sediment microeukaryotes was affected by increasing antibiotic pollution at the inlet (control) and across the outlet sites along a shrimp wastewater discharge channel. The structures of sediment microeukaryotic community were substantially altered by the increasing nutrient and antibiotic pollutions, which were primarily controlled by the direct effects of phosphate and ammonium (-0.645 and 0.507, respectively). In addition, tetracyclines exerted a large effect (0.209), including direct effect (0.326) and indirect effect (-0.117), on the microeukaryotic assembly. On the contrary, the fungal subcommunity was relatively resistant to antibiotic pollution. Segmented analysis depicted nonlinear responses of microeukaryotic genera to the antibiotic pollution gradient, as supported by the significant tipping points. We screened 30 antibiotic concentration-discriminatory taxa of microeukaryotes, which can quantitatively and accurately predict (98.7% accuracy) the in-situ antibiotic concentration. Sediment microeukaryotic (except fungal) community is sensitive to antibiotic pollution, and the identified bioindicators could be used for antibiotic pollution diagnosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chaohua Wang
- State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-products, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China; School of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
| | - Zhiyuan Yao
- Institute of Ocean Engineering, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
| | - Pingping Zhan
- School of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
| | - Xianghua Yi
- Lanshion Marine Science and Technology Co., Ltd., Ningbo 315715, China
| | - Jiong Chen
- State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-products, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China; School of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
| | - Jinbo Xiong
- State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-products, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China; School of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China.
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19
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Shi L, Xia P, Lin T, Li G, Wang T, Du X. Temporal Succession of Bacterial Community Structure, Co-occurrence Patterns, and Community Assembly Process in Epiphytic Biofilms of Submerged Plants in a Plateau Lake. MICROBIAL ECOLOGY 2023; 85:87-99. [PMID: 34997308 DOI: 10.1007/s00248-021-01956-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2021] [Accepted: 12/29/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
In shallow macrophytic lakes, epiphytic biofilms are formed on the surface of submerged plant stems and leaves because of algae and bacterial accumulation. Epiphytic biofilms significantly impact the health of the host vegetation and the biogeochemical cycling of lake elements. However, community diversity, species interactions, and community assembly mechanisms in epiphytic bacterial communities (EBCs) of plants during different growth periods are not well understood. We investigated the successional dynamics, co-occurrence patterns, and community assembly processes of epiphytic biofilm bacterial communities of submerged plants, Najas marina and Potamogeton lucens, from July to November 2020. The results showed a significant seasonal variation in EBC diversity and richness. Community diversity and richness increased from July to November, and the temperature was the most important driving factor for predicting seasonal changes in EBC community structure. Co-occurrence network analysis revealed that the average degree and graph density of the network increased from July to November, indicating that the complexity of the EBC network increased. The bacterial community co-occurrence network was limited by temperature, pH, and transparency. The phylogeny-based null model analysis showed that deterministic processes dominated the microbial community assembly in different periods, increasing their contribution. In addition, we found that as the dominance of deterministic processes increased, the microbial co-occurrence links increased, and the potential interrelationships between species became stronger. Thus, the findings provide insights into the seasonal variability of EBC assemblage and co-occurrence patterns in lacustrine ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lei Shi
- Guizhou Province Key Laboratory for Information System of Mountainous Areas and Protection of Ecological Environment, Guizhou Normal University, No. 116 Baoshan Road (N), Guiyang, 550001, Guizhou, China
| | - Pinhua Xia
- Guizhou Province Key Laboratory for Information System of Mountainous Areas and Protection of Ecological Environment, Guizhou Normal University, No. 116 Baoshan Road (N), Guiyang, 550001, Guizhou, China.
| | - Tao Lin
- Guizhou Province Key Laboratory for Information System of Mountainous Areas and Protection of Ecological Environment, Guizhou Normal University, No. 116 Baoshan Road (N), Guiyang, 550001, Guizhou, China
| | - Guoqing Li
- Guizhou Province Key Laboratory for Information System of Mountainous Areas and Protection of Ecological Environment, Guizhou Normal University, No. 116 Baoshan Road (N), Guiyang, 550001, Guizhou, China
| | - Tianyou Wang
- Guizhou Province Key Laboratory for Information System of Mountainous Areas and Protection of Ecological Environment, Guizhou Normal University, No. 116 Baoshan Road (N), Guiyang, 550001, Guizhou, China
| | - Xin Du
- Guizhou Province Key Laboratory for Information System of Mountainous Areas and Protection of Ecological Environment, Guizhou Normal University, No. 116 Baoshan Road (N), Guiyang, 550001, Guizhou, China
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20
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Goff JL, Szink EG, Thorgersen MP, Putt AD, Fan Y, Lui LM, Nielsen TN, Hunt KA, Michael JP, Wang Y, Ning D, Fu Y, Van Nostrand JD, Poole FL, Chandonia J, Hazen TC, Stahl DA, Zhou J, Arkin AP, Adams MWW. Ecophysiological and genomic analyses of a representative isolate of highly abundant Bacillus cereus strains in contaminated subsurface sediments. Environ Microbiol 2022; 24:5546-5560. [PMID: 36053980 PMCID: PMC9805006 DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.16173] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2022] [Accepted: 08/10/2022] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Bacillus cereus strain CPT56D-587-MTF (CPTF) was isolated from the highly contaminated Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) subsurface. This site is contaminated with high levels of nitric acid and multiple heavy metals. Amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA genes (V4 region) in sediment from this area revealed an amplicon sequence variant (ASV) with 100% identity to the CPTF 16S rRNA sequence. Notably, this CPTF-matching ASV had the highest relative abundance in this community survey, with a median relative abundance of 3.77% and comprised 20%-40% of reads in some samples. Pangenomic analysis revealed that strain CPTF has expanded genomic content compared to other B. cereus species-largely due to plasmid acquisition and expansion of transposable elements. This suggests that these features are important for rapid adaptation to native environmental stressors. We connected genotype to phenotype in the context of the unique geochemistry of the site. These analyses revealed that certain genes (e.g. nitrate reductase, heavy metal efflux pumps) that allow this strain to successfully occupy the geochemically heterogenous microniches of its native site are characteristic of the B. cereus species while others such as acid tolerance are mobile genetic element associated and are generally unique to strain CPTF.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer L. Goff
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyUniversity of GeorgiaAthensGeorgiaUSA
| | - Elizabeth G. Szink
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyUniversity of GeorgiaAthensGeorgiaUSA
| | - Michael P. Thorgersen
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyUniversity of GeorgiaAthensGeorgiaUSA
| | - Andrew D. Putt
- Earth and Planetary SciencesUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTennesseeUSA
| | - Yupeng Fan
- Institute for Environmental GenomicsUniversity of OklahomaNormanOklahomaUSA
| | - Lauren M. Lui
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology DivisionLawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryBerkeleyCaliforniaUSA
| | - Torben N. Nielsen
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology DivisionLawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryBerkeleyCaliforniaUSA
| | - Kristopher A. Hunt
- Civil and Environmental EngineeringUniversity of WashingtonSeattleWashingtonUSA
| | | | - Yajiao Wang
- Institute for Environmental GenomicsUniversity of OklahomaNormanOklahomaUSA
| | - Daliang Ning
- Institute for Environmental GenomicsUniversity of OklahomaNormanOklahomaUSA
| | - Ying Fu
- Institute for Environmental GenomicsUniversity of OklahomaNormanOklahomaUSA
| | | | - Farris L. Poole
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyUniversity of GeorgiaAthensGeorgiaUSA
| | - John‐Marc Chandonia
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology DivisionLawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryBerkeleyCaliforniaUSA
| | - Terry C. Hazen
- Earth and Planetary SciencesUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTennesseeUSA,Genome Sciences DivisionOak Ridge National LabOak RidgeTennesseeUSA,Department of Civil and Environmental EngineeringUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTennesseeUSA
| | - David A. Stahl
- Civil and Environmental EngineeringUniversity of WashingtonSeattleWashingtonUSA
| | - Jizhong Zhou
- Institute for Environmental GenomicsUniversity of OklahomaNormanOklahomaUSA,Department of Microbiology and Plant BiologyUniversity of OklahomaNormanOklahomaUSA,School of Civil Engineering and Environmental SciencesUniversity of OklahomaNormanOklahomaUSA,Earth and Environmental SciencesLawrence Berkley National LaboratoryBerkeleyCaliforniaUSA
| | - Adam P. Arkin
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology DivisionLawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryBerkeleyCaliforniaUSA,Department of BioengineeringUniversity of California at BerkeleyBerkeleyCaliforniaUSA
| | - Michael W. W. Adams
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyUniversity of GeorgiaAthensGeorgiaUSA
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21
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Letourneau J, Holmes ZC, Dallow EP, Durand HK, Jiang S, Carrion VM, Gupta SK, Mincey AC, Muehlbauer MJ, Bain JR, David LA. Ecological memory of prior nutrient exposure in the human gut microbiome. THE ISME JOURNAL 2022; 16:2479-2490. [PMID: 35871250 PMCID: PMC9563064 DOI: 10.1038/s41396-022-01292-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2022] [Revised: 07/05/2022] [Accepted: 07/07/2022] [Indexed: 04/20/2023]
Abstract
Many ecosystems have been shown to retain a memory of past conditions, which in turn affects how they respond to future stimuli. In microbial ecosystems, community disturbance has been associated with lasting impacts on microbiome structure. However, whether microbial communities alter their response to repeated stimulus remains incompletely understood. Using the human gut microbiome as a model, we show that bacterial communities retain an "ecological memory" of past carbohydrate exposures. Memory of the prebiotic inulin was encoded within a day of supplementation among a cohort of human study participants. Using in vitro gut microbial models, we demonstrated that the strength of ecological memory scales with nutrient dose and persists for days. We found evidence that memory is seeded by transcriptional changes among primary degraders of inulin within hours of nutrient exposure, and that subsequent changes in the activity and abundance of these taxa are sufficient to enhance overall community nutrient metabolism. We also observed that ecological memory of one carbohydrate species impacts microbiome response to other carbohydrates, and that an individual's habitual exposure to dietary fiber was associated with their gut microbiome's efficiency at digesting inulin. Together, these findings suggest that the human gut microbiome's metabolic potential reflects dietary exposures over preceding days and changes within hours of exposure to a novel nutrient. The dynamics of this ecological memory also highlight the potential for intra-individual microbiome variation to affect the design and interpretation of interventions involving the gut microbiome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeffrey Letourneau
- Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Zachary C Holmes
- Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Eric P Dallow
- Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Heather K Durand
- Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Sharon Jiang
- Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Verónica M Carrion
- Duke Office of Clinical Research, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Savita K Gupta
- Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Adam C Mincey
- Duke Molecular Physiology Institute, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Michael J Muehlbauer
- Duke Molecular Physiology Institute, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
| | - James R Bain
- Duke Molecular Physiology Institute, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
- Department of Medicine (Endocrinology), Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Lawrence A David
- Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.
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22
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Campa MF, Chen See JR, Unverdorben LV, Wright OG, Roth KA, Niles JM, Ressler D, Macatugal EMS, Putt AD, Techtmann SM, Righetti TL, Hazen TC, Lamendella R. Geochemistry and Multiomics Data Differentiate Streams in Pennsylvania Based on Unconventional Oil and Gas Activity. Microbiol Spectr 2022; 10:e0077022. [PMID: 35980272 PMCID: PMC9603415 DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.00770-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2022] [Accepted: 07/15/2022] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Unconventional oil and gas (UOG) extraction is increasing exponentially around the world, as new technological advances have provided cost-effective methods to extract hard-to-reach hydrocarbons. While UOG has increased the energy output of some countries, past research indicates potential impacts in nearby stream ecosystems as measured by geochemical and microbial markers. Here, we utilized a robust data set that combines 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing (DNA), metatranscriptomics (RNA), geochemistry, and trace element analyses to establish the impact of UOG activity in 21 sites in northern Pennsylvania. These data were also used to design predictive machine learning models to determine the UOG impact on streams. We identified multiple biomarkers of UOG activity and contributors of antimicrobial resistance within the order Burkholderiales. Furthermore, we identified expressed antimicrobial resistance genes, land coverage, geochemistry, and specific microbes as strong predictors of UOG status. Of the predictive models constructed (n = 30), 15 had accuracies higher than expected by chance and area under the curve values above 0.70. The supervised random forest models with the highest accuracy were constructed with 16S rRNA gene profiles, metatranscriptomics active microbial composition, metatranscriptomics active antimicrobial resistance genes, land coverage, and geochemistry (n = 23). The models identified the most important features within those data sets for classifying UOG status. These findings identified specific shifts in gene presence and expression, as well as geochemical measures, that can be used to build robust models to identify impacts of UOG development. IMPORTANCE The environmental implications of unconventional oil and gas extraction are only recently starting to be systematically recorded. Our research shows the utility of microbial communities paired with geochemical markers to build strong predictive random forest models of unconventional oil and gas activity and the identification of key biomarkers. Microbial communities, their transcribed genes, and key biomarkers can be used as sentinels of environmental changes. Slight changes in microbial function and composition can be detected before chemical markers of contamination. Potential contamination, specifically from biocides, is especially concerning due to its potential to promote antibiotic resistance in the environment. Additionally, as microbial communities facilitate the bulk of nutrient cycling in the environment, small changes may have long-term repercussions. Supervised random forest models can be used to identify changes in those communities, greatly enhance our understanding of what such impacts entail, and inform environmental management decisions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Fernanda Campa
- University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Andrew D. Putt
- University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
| | | | | | - Terry C. Hazen
- University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
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23
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Novichkov PS, Chandonia JM, Arkin AP. CORAL: A framework for rigorous self-validated data modeling and integrative, reproducible data analysis. Gigascience 2022; 11:6762021. [PMID: 36251274 PMCID: PMC9575582 DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giac089] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2021] [Revised: 04/12/2022] [Accepted: 08/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/04/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Many organizations face challenges in managing and analyzing data, especially when relevant datasets arise from multiple sources and methods. Analyzing heterogeneous datasets and additional derived data requires rigorous tracking of their interrelationships and provenance. This task has long been a Grand Challenge of data science and has more recently been formalized in the FAIR principles: that all data objects be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable, both for machines and for people. Adherence to these principles is necessary for proper stewardship of information, for testing regulatory compliance, for measuring the efficiency of processes, and for facilitating reuse of data-analytical frameworks. FINDINGS We present the Contextual Ontology-based Repository Analysis Library (CORAL), a platform that greatly facilitates adherence to all 4 of the FAIR principles, including the especially difficult challenge of making heterogeneous datasets Interoperable and Reusable across all parts of a large, long-lasting organization. To achieve this, CORAL's data model requires that data generators extensively document the context for all data, and our tools maintain that context throughout the entire analysis pipeline. CORAL also features a web interface for data generators to upload and explore data, as well as a Jupyter notebook interface for data analysts, both backed by a common API. CONCLUSIONS CORAL enables organizations to build FAIR data types on the fly as they are needed, avoiding the expense of bespoke data modeling. CORAL provides a uniquely powerful platform to enable integrative cross-dataset analyses, generating deeper insights than are possible using traditional analysis tools.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - John-Marc Chandonia
- Correspondence address. John-Marc Chandonia, Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Mailstop Donner, Berkeley, CA 94720-3102, USA. E-mail:
| | - Adam P Arkin
- Correspondence address. Adam P. Arkin, Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Mailstop 955-512L, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. E-mail:
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24
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Pedron R, Esposito A, Cozza W, Paolazzi M, Cristofolini M, Segata N, Jousson O. Microbiome characterization of alpine water springs for human consumption reveals site- and usage-specific microbial signatures. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:946460. [PMID: 36274724 PMCID: PMC9581249 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.946460] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2022] [Accepted: 09/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
The microbiome of water springs is gaining increasing interest, especially in water intended for human consumption. However, the knowledge about large-scale patterns in water springs microbiome is still incomplete. The presence of bacteria in water sources used for human consumption is a major concern for health authorities; nonetheless, the standard microbiological quality checks are focused only on pathogenic species and total microbial load. Using 16S rRNA high throughput sequencing, we characterized the microbiome from 38 water springs in Trentino (Northern Italy) for 2 consecutive years in order to gain precious insights on the microbiome composition of these unexplored yet hardly exploited environments. The microbiological studies were integrated with standard measurements of physico-chemical parameters performed by the Provincial Office for Environmental Monitoring in order to highlight some of the dynamics influencing the microbial communities of these waters. We found that alpha diversity showed consistent patterns of variation overtime, and showed a strong positive correlation with the water nitrate concentration and negatively with fixed residue, electrical conductivity, and calcium concentration. Surprisingly, alpha diversity did not show any significant correlation with neither pH nor temperature. We found that despite their remarkable stability, different water springs display different coefficients of variation in alpha diversity, and that springs used for similar purposes showed similar microbiomes. Furthermore, the springs could be grouped according to the number of shared species into three major groups: low, mid, and high number of shared taxa, and those three groups of springs were consistent with the spring usage. Species belonging to the phyla Planctomycetes and Verrucomicrobia were prevalent and at relatively high abundance in springs classified as low number of shared species, whereas the phylum Lentisphaerae and the Candidate Phyla radiation were prevalent at higher abundance in the mineral and potable springs. The present study constitutes an example for standard water spring monitoring integrated with microbial community composition on a regional scale, and provides information which could be useful in the design and application of future water management policies in Trentino.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renato Pedron
- Department of Cellular, Computational and Integrative Biology – CIBIO, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
| | - Alfonso Esposito
- International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology – ICGEB, Trieste, Italy
| | - William Cozza
- Department of Cellular, Computational and Integrative Biology – CIBIO, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
| | - Massimo Paolazzi
- Agenzia provinciale per la protezione dell'ambiente – APPA, Trento, Italy
| | | | - Nicola Segata
- Department of Cellular, Computational and Integrative Biology – CIBIO, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
| | - Olivier Jousson
- Department of Cellular, Computational and Integrative Biology – CIBIO, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
- *Correspondence: Olivier Jousson,
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25
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Putt AD, Rafie SAA, Hazen TC. Large-Data Omics Approaches in Modern Remediation. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING 2022; 148. [DOI: 10.1061/(asce)ee.1943-7870.0002042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2022] [Accepted: 04/26/2022] [Indexed: 09/02/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Andrew D. Putt
- Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996. ORCID:
| | - Sa’ad Abd Ar Rafie
- Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Sciences, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996
| | - Terry C. Hazen
- Governor’s Chair Professor, Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996; Dept. of Civil and Environmental Sciences, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996; Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831; Dept. of Microbiology, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996; Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996 (corresponding author). ORCID:
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26
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Hempel CA, Wright N, Harvie J, Hleap JS, Adamowicz S, Steinke D. Metagenomics versus total RNA sequencing: most accurate data-processing tools, microbial identification accuracy and perspectives for ecological assessments. Nucleic Acids Res 2022; 50:9279-9293. [PMID: 35979944 PMCID: PMC9458450 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkac689] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2022] [Revised: 07/05/2022] [Accepted: 07/29/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Metagenomics and total RNA sequencing (total RNA-Seq) have the potential to improve the taxonomic identification of diverse microbial communities, which could allow for the incorporation of microbes into routine ecological assessments. However, these target-PCR-free techniques require more testing and optimization. In this study, we processed metagenomics and total RNA-Seq data from a commercially available microbial mock community using 672 data-processing workflows, identified the most accurate data-processing tools, and compared their microbial identification accuracy at equal and increasing sequencing depths. The accuracy of data-processing tools substantially varied among replicates. Total RNA-Seq was more accurate than metagenomics at equal sequencing depths and even at sequencing depths almost one order of magnitude lower than those of metagenomics. We show that while data-processing tools require further exploration, total RNA-Seq might be a favorable alternative to metagenomics for target-PCR-free taxonomic identifications of microbial communities and might enable a substantial reduction in sequencing costs while maintaining accuracy. This could be particularly an advantage for routine ecological assessments, which require cost-effective yet accurate methods, and might allow for the incorporation of microbes into ecological assessments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher A Hempel
- To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +1 519 824 4120; Fax: +1 519 824 5703;
| | - Natalie Wright
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
| | - Julia Harvie
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
| | - Jose S Hleap
- SHARCNET, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
| | - Sarah J Adamowicz
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
| | - Dirk Steinke
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada,Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
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27
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Zhou L, Zhao Z, Shao L, Fang S, Li T, Gan L, Guo C. Predicting the abundance of metal resistance genes in subtropical estuaries using amplicon sequencing and machine learning. ECOTOXICOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY 2022; 241:113844. [PMID: 36068766 DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.113844] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2022] [Revised: 06/24/2022] [Accepted: 07/01/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Heavy metals are a group of anthropogenic contaminants in estuary ecosystems. Bacteria in estuaries counteract the highly concentrated metal toxicity through metal resistance genes (MRGs). Presently, metagenomic technology is popularly used to study MRGs. However, an easier and less expensive method of acquiring MRG information is needed to deepen our understanding of the fate of MRGs. Thus, this study explores the feasibility of using a machine learning approach-namely, random forests (RF)-to predict MRG abundance based on the 16S rRNA amplicon sequenced datasets from subtropical estuaries in China. Our results showed that the total MRG abundance could be predicted by RF models using bacterial composition at different taxonomic levels. Among them, the relative abundance of bacterial phyla had the highest predicted accuracy (71.7 %). In addition, the RF models constructed by bacterial phyla predicted the abundance of six MRG types and nine MRG subtypes with substantial accuracy (R2 > 0.600). Five bacterial phyla (Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Patescibacteria, Armatimonadetes, and Nitrospirae) substantially determined the variations in MRG abundance. Our findings prove that RF models can predict MRG abundance in South China estuaries during the wet season by using the bacterial composition obtained by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lei Zhou
- College of Marine Sciences, South China Agricultural University, 510642 Guangzhou, China
| | - Zelong Zhao
- Liaoning Key Lab of Germplasm Improvement and Fine Seed Breeding of Marine Aquatic animals, Liaoning Ocean and Fisheries Science Research Institute, Dalian 116023, China
| | - Liyi Shao
- College of Marine Sciences, South China Agricultural University, 510642 Guangzhou, China
| | - Shiyun Fang
- College of Marine Sciences, South China Agricultural University, 510642 Guangzhou, China
| | - Tongzhou Li
- College of Marine Sciences, South China Agricultural University, 510642 Guangzhou, China
| | - Lihong Gan
- College of Marine Sciences, South China Agricultural University, 510642 Guangzhou, China
| | - Chuanbo Guo
- State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China.
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28
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Yang HY, Zhang SB, Meng HH, Zhao Y, Wei ZM, Zheng GR, Wang X. Predicting the humification degree of multiple organic solid waste during composting using a designated bacterial community. WASTE MANAGEMENT (NEW YORK, N.Y.) 2022; 150:257-266. [PMID: 35870361 DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2022.07.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2022] [Revised: 05/29/2022] [Accepted: 07/08/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Microbes are the drivers for disposing of organic solid waste (OSW) during aerobic fermentation. Notwithstanding, the significance of microbes is underestimated in numerous studies on aerobic fermentation product assessments. Here, we investigated the humification degree (HD), and the humic acid content was assessed in terms of the bacterial community. The bacterial communities were useful indicators for making predictions and even correctly determined the categories of OSWs with 94% accuracy. The bacterial codes can also provide a better prediction of HD. Our results demonstrate that the bacteria code is a reliable biological method to assess HD effectively. Bacterial codes can be used as ecological and biological indicators to evaluate the quality of aerobic fermentation of different materials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hong-Yu Yang
- College of Life Science, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China
| | - Shu-Bo Zhang
- College of Life Science, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China
| | - Han-Han Meng
- College of Life Science, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China
| | - Yue Zhao
- College of Life Science, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China
| | - Zi-Min Wei
- College of Life Science, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
| | - Guang-Ren Zheng
- College of Life Science, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China
| | - Xue Wang
- College of Life Science, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China
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29
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Development of a Markerless Deletion Mutagenesis System in Nitrate-Reducing Bacterium Rhodanobacter denitrificans. Appl Environ Microbiol 2022; 88:e0040122. [PMID: 35737807 PMCID: PMC9317963 DOI: 10.1128/aem.00401-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Rhodanobacter has been found as the dominant genus in aquifers contaminated with high concentrations of nitrate and uranium in Oak Ridge, TN, USA. The in situ stimulation of denitrification has been proposed as a potential method to remediate nitrate and uranium contamination. Among the Rhodanobacter species, Rhodanobacter denitrificans strains have been reported to be capable of denitrification and contain abundant metal resistance genes. However, due to the lack of a mutagenesis system in these strains, our understanding of the mechanisms underlying low-pH resistance and the ability to dominate in the contaminated environment remains limited. Here, we developed an in-frame markerless deletion system in two R. denitrificans strains. First, we optimized the growth conditions, tested antibiotic resistance, and determined appropriate transformation parameters in 10 Rhodanobacter strains. We then deleted the upp gene, which encodes uracil phosphoribosyltransferase, in R. denitrificans strains FW104-R3 and FW104-R5. The resulting strains were designated R3_Δupp and R5_Δupp and used as host strains for mutagenesis with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) resistance as the counterselection marker to generate markerless deletion mutants. To test the developed protocol, the narG gene encoding nitrate reductase was knocked out in the R3_Δupp and R5_Δupp host strains. As expected, the narG mutants could not grow in anoxic medium with nitrate as the electron acceptor. Overall, these results show that the in-frame markerless deletion system is effective in two R. denitrificans strains, which will allow for future functional genomic studies in these strains furthering our understanding of the metabolic and resistance mechanisms present in Rhodanobacter species. IMPORTANCE Rhodanobacter denitrificans is capable of denitrification and is also resistant to toxic heavy metals and low pH. Accordingly, the presence of Rhodanobacter species at a particular environmental site is considered an indicator of nitrate and uranium contamination. These characteristics suggest its future potential application in bioremediation of nitrate or concurrent nitrate and uranium contamination in groundwater ecosystems. Due to the lack of genetic tools in this organism, the mechanisms of low-pH and heavy metal resistance in R. denitrificans strains remain elusive, which impedes its use in bioremediation strategies. Here, we developed a genome editing method in two R. denitrificans strains. This work marks a crucial step in developing Rhodanobacter as a model for studying the diverse mechanisms of low-pH and heavy metal resistance associated with denitrification.
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Xing G, Lu J, Xuan L, Chen J, Xiong J. Sediment prokaryotic assembly, methane cycling, and ammonia oxidation potentials in response to increasing antibiotic pollution at shrimp aquafarm. JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS 2022; 434:128885. [PMID: 35421673 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.128885] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2022] [Revised: 03/30/2022] [Accepted: 04/07/2022] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
Antibiotic pollution poses serious threats to public health and ecological processes. However, systematic research regarding the interactive effects of increasing nutrient and antibiotic pollutions on the prokaryotic community, particularly taxa that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, is lacking. By exploring the complex interactions that occur between interkingdom bacteria and archaea, biotic and abiotic factors, the responses of sediment prokaryotic assembly were determined along a significant antibiotic pollution gradient. Bacterial and archaeal communities were primarily governed by sediment antibiotic pollution, ammonia, phosphate, and redox potential, which further affected enzyme activities. The two communities nonlinearly responded to increasing antibiotic pollution, with significant tipping points of 3.906 and 0.979 mg/kg antibiotics, respectively. The combined antibiotic concentration-discriminatory taxa of bacteria and archaea accurately (98.0% accuracy) diagnosed in situ antibiotic concentrations. Co-abundance analysis revealed that the methanogens, methanotrophs, sulfate-reducing bacteria, and novel players synergistically contributed to methane cycling. Antibiotic pollution caused the dominant role of ammonia-oxidizing archaea in ammonia oxidation at these alkaline sediments. Collectively, the significant tipping points and bio-indicators afford indexes for regime shift and quantitative diagnosis of antibiotic pollution, respectively. Antibiotic pollution could expedite methane cycling and mitigate nitrous oxide yield, which are previously unrecognized ecological effects. These findings provide new insights into the interactive biological and ecological consequences of increasing nutrient and antibiotic pollutions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guorui Xing
- State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-products, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China; School of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
| | - Jiaqi Lu
- State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-products, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China; School of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
| | - Lixia Xuan
- State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-products, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China; School of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
| | - Jiong Chen
- State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-products, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China; School of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China.
| | - Jinbo Xiong
- State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-products, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China; School of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China.
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Zhang J, Dolfing J, Liu W, Chen R, Zhang J, Lin X, Feng Y. Beyond the snapshot: identification of the timeless, enduring indicator microbiome informing soil fertility and crop production in alkaline soils. ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOME 2022; 17:25. [PMID: 35549771 PMCID: PMC9101894 DOI: 10.1186/s40793-022-00420-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2022] [Accepted: 04/30/2022] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Microorganisms are known to be important drivers of biogeochemical cycling in soil and hence could act as a proxy informing on soil conditions in ecosystems. Identifying microbiomes indicative for soil fertility and crop production is important for the development of the next generation of sustainable agriculture. Earlier researches based on one-time sampling have revealed various indicator microbiomes for distinct agroecosystems and agricultural practices as well as their importance in supporting sustainable productivity. However, these microbiomes were based on a mere snapshot of a dynamic microbial community which is subject to significant changes over time. Currently true indicator microbiomes based on long-term, multi-annual monitoring are not available. RESULTS Here, using samples from a continuous 20-year field study encompassing seven fertilization strategies, we identified the indicator microbiomes ecophysiologically informing on soil fertility and crop production in the main agricultural production base in China. Among a total of 29,184 phylotypes in 588 samples, we retrieved a streamlined consortium including 2% of phylotypes that were ubiquitously present in alkaline soils while contributing up to half of the whole community; many of them were associated with carbon and nutrient cycling. Furthermore, these phylotypes formed two opposite microbiomes. One indicator microbiome dominated by Bacillus asahii, characterized by specific functional traits related to organic matter decomposition, was mainly observed in organic farming and closely associated with higher soil fertility and crop production. The counter microbiome, characterized by known nitrifiers (e.g., Nitrosospira multiformis) as well as plant pathogens (e.g., Bacillus anthracis) was observed in nutrient-deficit chemical fertilizations. Both microbiomes are expected to be valuable indictors in informing crop yield and soil fertility, regulated by agricultural management. CONCLUSIONS Our findings based on this more than 2-decade long field study demonstrate the exciting potential of employing microorganisms and maximizing their functions in future agroecosystems. Our results report a "most-wanted" or "most-unwanted" list of microbial phylotypes that are ready candidates to guide the development of sustainable agriculture in alkaline soils.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jianwei Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008 People’s Republic of China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 People’s Republic of China
| | - Jan Dolfing
- Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
| | - Wenjing Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008 People’s Republic of China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 People’s Republic of China
| | - Ruirui Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008 People’s Republic of China
| | - Jiabao Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008 People’s Republic of China
| | - Xiangui Lin
- State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008 People’s Republic of China
| | - Youzhi Feng
- State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008 People’s Republic of China
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McElhinney JMWR, Catacutan MK, Mawart A, Hasan A, Dias J. Interfacing Machine Learning and Microbial Omics: A Promising Means to Address Environmental Challenges. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:851450. [PMID: 35547145 PMCID: PMC9083327 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.851450] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2022] [Accepted: 03/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Microbial communities are ubiquitous and carry an exceptionally broad metabolic capability. Upon environmental perturbation, microbes are also amongst the first natural responsive elements with perturbation-specific cues and markers. These communities are thereby uniquely positioned to inform on the status of environmental conditions. The advent of microbial omics has led to an unprecedented volume of complex microbiological data sets. Importantly, these data sets are rich in biological information with potential for predictive environmental classification and forecasting. However, the patterns in this information are often hidden amongst the inherent complexity of the data. There has been a continued rise in the development and adoption of machine learning (ML) and deep learning architectures for solving research challenges of this sort. Indeed, the interface between molecular microbial ecology and artificial intelligence (AI) appears to show considerable potential for significantly advancing environmental monitoring and management practices through their application. Here, we provide a primer for ML, highlight the notion of retaining biological sample information for supervised ML, discuss workflow considerations, and review the state of the art of the exciting, yet nascent, interdisciplinary field of ML-driven microbial ecology. Current limitations in this sphere of research are also addressed to frame a forward-looking perspective toward the realization of what we anticipate will become a pivotal toolkit for addressing environmental monitoring and management challenges in the years ahead.
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Affiliation(s)
- James M. W. R. McElhinney
- Applied Genomics Laboratory, Center for Membranes and Advanced Water Technology, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
| | | | - Aurelie Mawart
- Applied Genomics Laboratory, Center for Membranes and Advanced Water Technology, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
| | - Ayesha Hasan
- Applied Genomics Laboratory, Center for Membranes and Advanced Water Technology, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
| | - Jorge Dias
- EECS, Center for Autonomous Robotic Systems, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
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Pawlowski J, Bruce K, Panksep K, Aguirre FI, Amalfitano S, Apothéloz-Perret-Gentil L, Baussant T, Bouchez A, Carugati L, Cermakova K, Cordier T, Corinaldesi C, Costa FO, Danovaro R, Dell'Anno A, Duarte S, Eisendle U, Ferrari BJD, Frontalini F, Frühe L, Haegerbaeumer A, Kisand V, Krolicka A, Lanzén A, Leese F, Lejzerowicz F, Lyautey E, Maček I, Sagova-Marečková M, Pearman JK, Pochon X, Stoeck T, Vivien R, Weigand A, Fazi S. Environmental DNA metabarcoding for benthic monitoring: A review of sediment sampling and DNA extraction methods. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2022; 818:151783. [PMID: 34801504 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151783] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2021] [Revised: 11/06/2021] [Accepted: 11/14/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding (parallel sequencing of DNA/RNA for identification of whole communities within a targeted group) is revolutionizing the field of aquatic biomonitoring. To date, most metabarcoding studies aiming to assess the ecological status of aquatic ecosystems have focused on water eDNA and macroinvertebrate bulk samples. However, the eDNA metabarcoding has also been applied to soft sediment samples, mainly for assessing microbial or meiofaunal biota. Compared to classical methodologies based on manual sorting and morphological identification of benthic taxa, eDNA metabarcoding offers potentially important advantages for assessing the environmental quality of sediments. The methods and protocols utilized for sediment eDNA metabarcoding can vary considerably among studies, and standardization efforts are needed to improve their robustness, comparability and use within regulatory frameworks. Here, we review the available information on eDNA metabarcoding applied to sediment samples, with a focus on sampling, preservation, and DNA extraction steps. We discuss challenges specific to sediment eDNA analysis, including the variety of different sources and states of eDNA and its persistence in the sediment. This paper aims to identify good-practice strategies and facilitate method harmonization for routine use of sediment eDNA in future benthic monitoring.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Pawlowski
- Department of Genetics and Evolution, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 81-712 Sopot, Poland; ID-Gene Ecodiagnostics, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - K Bruce
- NatureMetrics Ltd, CABI Site, Bakeham Lane, Egham TW20 9TY, UK
| | - K Panksep
- Institute of Technology, University of Tartu, Tartu 50411, Estonia; Chair of Hydrobiology and Fishery, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia; Chair of Aquaculture, Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Estonia
| | - F I Aguirre
- Water Research Institute, National Research Council of Italy (IRSA-CNR), Monterotondo, Rome, Italy
| | - S Amalfitano
- Water Research Institute, National Research Council of Italy (IRSA-CNR), Monterotondo, Rome, Italy
| | - L Apothéloz-Perret-Gentil
- Department of Genetics and Evolution, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; ID-Gene Ecodiagnostics, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - T Baussant
- Norwegian Research Center AS, NORCE Environment, Marine Ecology Group, Mekjarvik 12, 4070 Randaberg, Norway
| | - A Bouchez
- INRAE, CARRTEL, 74200 Thonon-les-Bains, France
| | - L Carugati
- Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, Polytechnic University of Marche, Via Brecce Bianche, Ancona 60131, Italy
| | - K Cermakova
- ID-Gene Ecodiagnostics, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - T Cordier
- Department of Genetics and Evolution, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; NORCE Climate, NORCE Norwegian Research Centre AS, Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Jahnebakken 5, 5007 Bergen, Norway
| | - C Corinaldesi
- Department of Materials, Environmental Sciences and Urban Planning, Polytechnic University of Marche, Via Brecce Bianche, Ancona 60131, Italy
| | - F O Costa
- Centre of Molecular and Environmental Biology (CBMA), Department of Biology, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal; Institute of Science and Innovation for Bio-Sustainability (IB-S), University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal
| | - R Danovaro
- Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, Polytechnic University of Marche, Via Brecce Bianche, Ancona 60131, Italy
| | - A Dell'Anno
- Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, Polytechnic University of Marche, Via Brecce Bianche, Ancona 60131, Italy
| | - S Duarte
- Centre of Molecular and Environmental Biology (CBMA), Department of Biology, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal; Institute of Science and Innovation for Bio-Sustainability (IB-S), University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal
| | - U Eisendle
- University of Salzburg, Dept. of Biosciences, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
| | - B J D Ferrari
- Swiss Centre for Applied Ecotoxicology (Ecotox Centre), EPFL ENAC IIE-GE, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - F Frontalini
- Department of Pure and Applied Sciences, Urbino University, Urbino, Italy
| | - L Frühe
- Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, Ecology Group, D-67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany
| | - A Haegerbaeumer
- Bielefeld University, Animal Ecology, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany
| | - V Kisand
- Institute of Technology, University of Tartu, Tartu 50411, Estonia
| | - A Krolicka
- Norwegian Research Center AS, NORCE Environment, Marine Ecology Group, Mekjarvik 12, 4070 Randaberg, Norway
| | - A Lanzén
- AZTI, Marine Research, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Pasaia, Gipuzkoa, Spain; IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Bizkaia, Spain
| | - F Leese
- University of Duisburg-Essen, Faculty of Biology, Aquatic Ecosystem Research, Germany
| | - F Lejzerowicz
- Center for Microbiome Innovation, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - E Lyautey
- Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, INRAE, CARRTEL, 74200 Thonon-les-Bains, France
| | - I Maček
- Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva 101, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia; Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies (FAMNIT), University of Primorska, Glagoljaška 8, 6000 Koper, Slovenia
| | - M Sagova-Marečková
- Czech University of Life Sciences, Dept. of Microbiology, Nutrition and Dietetics, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - J K Pearman
- Coastal and Freshwater Group, Cawthron Institute, Private Bag 2, Nelson 7042, New Zealand
| | - X Pochon
- Coastal and Freshwater Group, Cawthron Institute, Private Bag 2, Nelson 7042, New Zealand; Institute of Marine Science, University of Auckland, Warkworth 0941, New Zealand
| | - T Stoeck
- Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, Ecology Group, D-67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany
| | - R Vivien
- Swiss Centre for Applied Ecotoxicology (Ecotox Centre), EPFL ENAC IIE-GE, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - A Weigand
- National Museum of Natural History Luxembourg, 25 Rue Münster, L-2160 Luxembourg, Luxembourg
| | - S Fazi
- Water Research Institute, National Research Council of Italy (IRSA-CNR), Monterotondo, Rome, Italy.
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Arora-Williams K, Holder C, Secor M, Ellis H, Xia M, Gnanadesikan A, Preheim SP. Abundant and persistent sulfur-oxidizing microbial populations are responsive to hypoxia in the Chesapeake Bay. Environ Microbiol 2022; 24:2315-2332. [PMID: 35304940 PMCID: PMC9310604 DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.15976] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2021] [Revised: 03/07/2022] [Accepted: 03/12/2022] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
The number, size and severity of aquatic low‐oxygen dead zones are increasing worldwide. Microbial processes in low‐oxygen environments have important ecosystem‐level consequences, such as denitrification, greenhouse gas production and acidification. To identify key microbial processes occurring in low‐oxygen bottom waters of the Chesapeake Bay, we sequenced both 16S rRNA genes and shotgun metagenomic libraries to determine the identity, functional potential and spatiotemporal distribution of microbial populations in the water column. Unsupervised clustering algorithms grouped samples into three clusters using water chemistry or microbial communities, with extensive overlap of cluster composition between methods. Clusters were strongly differentiated by temperature, salinity and oxygen. Sulfur‐oxidizing microorganisms were found to be enriched in the low‐oxygen bottom water and predictive of hypoxic conditions. Metagenome‐assembled genomes demonstrate that some of these sulfur‐oxidizing populations are capable of partial denitrification and transcriptionally active in a prior study. These results suggest that microorganisms capable of oxidizing reduced sulfur compounds are a previously unidentified microbial indicator of low oxygen in the Chesapeake Bay and reveal ties between the sulfur, nitrogen and oxygen cycles that could be important to capture when predicting the ecosystem response to remediation efforts or climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keith Arora-Williams
- Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Christopher Holder
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Maeve Secor
- Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Hugh Ellis
- Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Meng Xia
- Department of Natural Sciences, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Princess Anne, MD 21853, USA
| | - Anand Gnanadesikan
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Sarah P Preheim
- Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
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Fernandes L, Jesus H, Almeida P, Sandrini J, Bianchini A, Santos H. The influence of the Doce River mouth on the microbiome of nearby coastal areas three years after the Fundão Dam failure, Brazil. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2022; 807:151777. [PMID: 34808168 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151777] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2021] [Revised: 10/14/2021] [Accepted: 11/14/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The failure of the Fundão Dam, considered the world's largest mining disaster, released more than 55 million m3 of ore tailings into the environment. The sediment plume formed by water and tailings spread along approximately 663 km of water bodies of the Doce River basin. It reached the Atlantic Ocean sixteen days after the dam failure. However, the effects of the dam failure in the marine coastal areas years after the disaster are still unknown. This study aims to evaluate water and sediment microbial communities of nearby coastal areas three years after the Fundão Dam failure, using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. A total of 441 samples from 25 locations were collected during two different seasons (dry and rainy). The results showed that the Doce River mouth seems to divide the microbial communities from the southern and northern stations into two groups. The plume of sediments from the Doce River seems to be impacting the marine microbiome even at the furthest sampling stations. Bacterial (Anaerolineaceae, Thermodesulfovibrionia and Rhodopirellula) and Archaeal (Bathyarchaeia and Woesearchaeia) taxa, found in high abundance in the sediment of the Doce River mouth, have been previously described in high abundance in heavy metal contaminated sediments, including the Doce River itself and in mine tailing sediments. Cyanobium, found in great abundance in the water samples from the Doce River mouth, was also reported as the most abundant in the water of the Doce River after the Fundão Dam failure. Overall, the farther from the Doce River mouth the sample was, the lower the relative abundances of these taxa were. These results provide strong evidence that the sediment plume released by the Fundão Dam failure is probably impacting the marine microbiome of nearby coastal areas, even three years after the dam failure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luanny Fernandes
- Department of Marine Biology, Fluminense Federal University - UFF, St. Professor Marcos Waldemar de Freitas Reis, Niterói, RJ 24210-201, Brazil
| | - Hugo Jesus
- Department of Marine Biology, Fluminense Federal University - UFF, St. Professor Marcos Waldemar de Freitas Reis, Niterói, RJ 24210-201, Brazil
| | - Pedro Almeida
- Department of Marine Biology, Fluminense Federal University - UFF, St. Professor Marcos Waldemar de Freitas Reis, Niterói, RJ 24210-201, Brazil
| | - Juliana Sandrini
- Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande - FURG, Av. Itália, s/n, Carreiros, Rio Grande, RS 96203-900, Brazil
| | - Adalto Bianchini
- Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande - FURG, Av. Itália, s/n, Carreiros, Rio Grande, RS 96203-900, Brazil; Coral Vivo Institute, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
| | - Henrique Santos
- Department of Marine Biology, Fluminense Federal University - UFF, St. Professor Marcos Waldemar de Freitas Reis, Niterói, RJ 24210-201, Brazil; Coral Vivo Institute, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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Root exudate chemistry affects soil carbon mobilization via microbial community reassembly. FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.fmre.2021.12.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
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Paradis CJ, Miller JI, Moon J, Spencer SJ, Lui LM, Van Nostrand JD, Ning D, Steen AD, McKay LD, Arkin AP, Zhou J, Alm EJ, Hazen TC. Sustained Ability of a Natural Microbial Community to Remove Nitrate from Groundwater. GROUND WATER 2022; 60:99-111. [PMID: 34490626 PMCID: PMC9290691 DOI: 10.1111/gwat.13132] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2021] [Revised: 08/24/2021] [Accepted: 08/30/2021] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
Microbial-mediated nitrate removal from groundwater is widely recognized as the predominant mechanism for nitrate attenuation in contaminated aquifers and is largely dependent on the presence of a carbon-bearing electron donor. The repeated exposure of a natural microbial community to an electron donor can result in the sustained ability of the community to remove nitrate; this phenomenon has been clearly demonstrated at the laboratory scale. However, in situ demonstrations of this ability are lacking. For this study, ethanol (electron donor) was repeatedly injected into a groundwater well (treatment) for six consecutive weeks to establish the sustained ability of a microbial community to remove nitrate. A second well (control) located upgradient was not injected with ethanol during this time. The treatment well demonstrated strong evidence of sustained ability as evident by ethanol, nitrate, and subsequent sulfate removal up to 21, 64, and 68%, respectively, as compared to the conservative tracer (bromide) upon consecutive exposures. Both wells were then monitored for six additional weeks under natural (no injection) conditions. During the final week, ethanol was injected into both treatment and control wells. The treatment well demonstrated sustained ability as evident by ethanol and nitrate removal up to 20 and 21%, respectively, as compared to bromide, whereas the control did not show strong evidence of nitrate removal (5% removal). Surprisingly, the treatment well did not indicate a sustained and selective enrichment of a microbial community. These results suggested that the predominant mechanism(s) of sustained ability likely exist at the enzymatic- and/or genetic-levels. The results of this study demonstrated the in situ ability of a microbial community to remove nitrate can be sustained in the prolonged absence of an electron donor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charles J. Paradis
- Department of Earth and Planetary SciencesUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTN
- Biosciences DivisionOak Ridge National LaboratoryOak RidgeTN
| | - John I. Miller
- Biosciences DivisionOak Ridge National LaboratoryOak RidgeTN
- Bredesen CenterUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTN
| | - Ji‐Won Moon
- Biosciences DivisionOak Ridge National LaboratoryOak RidgeTN
| | - Sarah J. Spencer
- Biological Engineering DepartmentMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyCambridgeMA
| | - Lauren M. Lui
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology DivisionLawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryBerkeleyCA
| | - Joy D. Van Nostrand
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, Department of Microbiology and Plant Biologyand School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences, University of OklahomaNormanOK
| | - Daliang Ning
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, Department of Microbiology and Plant Biologyand School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences, University of OklahomaNormanOK
| | - Andrew D. Steen
- Department of Earth and Planetary SciencesUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTN
- Department of MicrobiologyUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTN
| | - Larry D. McKay
- Department of Earth and Planetary SciencesUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTN
| | - Adam P. Arkin
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology DivisionLawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryBerkeleyCA
- Department of BioengineeringUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeleyCA
| | - Jizhong Zhou
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, Department of Microbiology and Plant Biologyand School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences, University of OklahomaNormanOK
| | - Eric J. Alm
- Biological Engineering DepartmentMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyCambridgeMA
| | - Terry C. Hazen
- Department of Earth and Planetary SciencesUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTN
- Biosciences DivisionOak Ridge National LaboratoryOak RidgeTN
- Bredesen CenterUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTN
- Department of BioengineeringUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeleyCA
- Department of Civil and Environmental SciencesUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTN
- Center for Environmental BiotechnologyUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTN
- Institute for a Secure and Sustainable EnvironmentUniversity of TennesseeKnoxvilleTN
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Janßen R, Beck AJ, Werner J, Dellwig O, Alneberg J, Kreikemeyer B, Maser E, Böttcher C, Achterberg EP, Andersson AF, Labrenz M. Machine Learning Predicts the Presence of 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene in Sediments of a Baltic Sea Munitions Dumpsite Using Microbial Community Compositions. Front Microbiol 2021; 12:626048. [PMID: 34659134 PMCID: PMC8513674 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.626048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2020] [Accepted: 08/24/2021] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Bacteria are ubiquitous and live in complex microbial communities. Due to differences in physiological properties and niche preferences among community members, microbial communities respond in specific ways to environmental drivers, potentially resulting in distinct microbial fingerprints for a given environmental state. As proof of the principle, our goal was to assess the opportunities and limitations of machine learning to detect microbial fingerprints indicating the presence of the munition compound 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) in southwestern Baltic Sea sediments. Over 40 environmental variables including grain size distribution, elemental composition, and concentration of munition compounds (mostly at pmol⋅g–1 levels) from 150 sediments collected at the near-to-shore munition dumpsite Kolberger Heide by the German city of Kiel were combined with 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing libraries. Prediction was achieved using Random Forests (RFs); the robustness of predictions was validated using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). To facilitate machine learning with microbiome data we developed the R package phyloseq2ML. Using the most classification-relevant 25 bacterial genera exclusively, potentially representing a TNT-indicative fingerprint, TNT was predicted correctly with up to 81.5% balanced accuracy. False positive classifications indicated that this approach also has the potential to identify samples where the original TNT contamination was no longer detectable. The fact that TNT presence was not among the main drivers of the microbial community composition demonstrates the sensitivity of the approach. Moreover, environmental variables resulted in poorer prediction rates than using microbial fingerprints. Our results suggest that microbial communities can predict even minor influencing factors in complex environments, demonstrating the potential of this approach for the discovery of contamination events over an integrated period of time. Proven for a distinct environment future studies should assess the ability of this approach for environmental monitoring in general.
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Affiliation(s)
- René Janßen
- Biological Oceanography, Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, Rostock, Germany
| | - Aaron J Beck
- Marine Biogeochemistry, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | - Johannes Werner
- Biological Oceanography, Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, Rostock, Germany
| | - Olaf Dellwig
- Marine Geology, Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, Rostock, Germany
| | - Johannes Alneberg
- Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Gene Technology, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Solna, Sweden
| | - Bernd Kreikemeyer
- Institute of Medical Microbiology, Virology and Hygiene, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany
| | - Edmund Maser
- Institute of Toxicology and Pharmacology for Natural Scientists, University Medical School Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany
| | - Claus Böttcher
- State Ministry of Energy, Agriculture, The Environment, Nature and Digitization, Kiel, Germany
| | - Eric P Achterberg
- Marine Biogeochemistry, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | - Anders F Andersson
- Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Gene Technology, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Solna, Sweden
| | - Matthias Labrenz
- Biological Oceanography, Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, Rostock, Germany
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Zeng J, Li Y, Dai Y, Wu Y, Lin X. Effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon structure on PAH mineralization and toxicity to soil microorganisms after oxidative bioremediation by laccase. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION (BARKING, ESSEX : 1987) 2021; 287:117581. [PMID: 34166999 DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2021.117581] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2021] [Revised: 06/04/2021] [Accepted: 06/09/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
While bioremediation using soil microorganisms is considered an energy-efficient and eco-friendly approach to treat polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-contaminated soils, a variety of polar PAH metabolites, particularly oxygenated ones, could increase the toxicity of the soil after biodegradation. In this study, a typical bio-oxidative transformation of PAH into quinones was investigated in soil amended with laccase using three PAHs with different structures (anthracene, benzo[a]anthracene, and benzo[a]pyrene) to assess the toxicity after oxidative bioremediation. The results show that during a 2-month incubation period the oxidation process promoted the formation of non-extractable residues (NERs) of PAHs, and different effects on mineralization were observed among the three PAHs. Oxidation enhanced the mineralization of the high-molecular-weight (HMW) PAHs (benzo[a]anthracene and benzo[a]pyrene) but inhibited the mineralization of the low-molecular-weight (LMW) PAH (anthracene). The inhibition of anthracene suggests increased toxicity after oxidative bioremediation, which coincided with a decrease in soil nitrification activity, bacterial diversity and PAH-ring hydroxylating dioxygenase gene copies. The analysis of PAH metabolites in soil extract indicated that oxidation by laccase was competitive with the natural transformation processes of PAHs and revealed that intermediates other than quinone metabolites increased the toxicity of soil during subsequent degradation. The different metabolic profiles of the three PAHs indicated that the toxicity of soil after PAH oxidation by laccase was strongly affected by the PAH structure. Despite the potential increase in toxicity, the results suggest that oxidative bioremediation is still an eco-friendly method for the treatment of HMW PAHs since the intermediates from HMW PAHs are more easily detoxified via NER formation than LMW PAHs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun Zeng
- Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing East Road, 71, Nanjing, 210008, PR China
| | - Yanjie Li
- Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing East Road, 71, Nanjing, 210008, PR China
| | - Yeliang Dai
- Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing East Road, 71, Nanjing, 210008, PR China
| | - Yucheng Wu
- Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing East Road, 71, Nanjing, 210008, PR China
| | - Xiangui Lin
- Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing East Road, 71, Nanjing, 210008, PR China.
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Deciphering Microbial Metal Toxicity Responses via Random Bar Code Transposon Site Sequencing and Activity-Based Metabolomics. Appl Environ Microbiol 2021; 87:e0103721. [PMID: 34432491 DOI: 10.1128/aem.01037-21] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
To uncover metal toxicity targets and defense mechanisms of the facultative anaerobe Pantoea sp. strain MT58 (MT58), we used a multiomic strategy combining two global techniques, random bar code transposon site sequencing (RB-TnSeq) and activity-based metabolomics. MT58 is a metal-tolerant Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) environmental isolate that was enriched in the presence of metals at concentrations measured in contaminated groundwater at an ORR nuclear waste site. The effects of three chemically different metals found at elevated concentrations in the ORR contaminated environment were investigated: the cation Al3+, the oxyanion CrO42-, and the oxycation UO22+. Both global techniques were applied using all three metals under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions to elucidate metal interactions mediated through the activity of metabolites and key genes/proteins. These revealed that Al3+ binds intracellular arginine, CrO42- enters the cell through sulfate transporters and oxidizes intracellular reduced thiols, and membrane-bound lipopolysaccharides protect the cell from UO22+ toxicity. In addition, the Tol outer membrane system contributed to the protection of cellular integrity from the toxic effects of all three metals. Likewise, we found evidence of regulation of lipid content in membranes under metal stress. Individually, RB-TnSeq and metabolomics are powerful tools to explore the impact various stresses have on biological systems. Here, we show that together they can be used synergistically to identify the molecular actors and mechanisms of these pertubations to an organism, furthering our understanding of how living systems interact with their environment. IMPORTANCE Studying microbial interactions with their environment can lead to a deeper understanding of biological molecular mechanisms. In this study, two global techniques, RB-TnSeq and activity metabolomics, were successfully used to probe the interactions between a metal-resistant microorganism, Pantoea sp. strain MT58, and metals contaminating a site where the organism can be located. A number of novel metal-microbe interactions were uncovered, including Al3+ toxicity targeting arginine synthesis, which could lead to a deeper understanding of the impact Al3+ contamination has on microbial communities as well as its impact on higher-level organisms, including plants for whom Al3+ contamination is an issue. Using multiomic approaches like the one described here is a way to further our understanding of microbial interactions and their impacts on the environment overall.
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Long-Term Biocide Efficacy and Its Effect on a Souring Microbial Community. Appl Environ Microbiol 2021; 87:e0084221. [PMID: 34160245 PMCID: PMC8357289 DOI: 10.1128/aem.00842-21] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Reservoir souring, which is the production of H2S mainly by sulfate-reducing microorganisms (SRM) in oil reservoirs, has been a long-standing issue for the oil industry. While biocides have been frequently applied to control biogenic souring, the effects of biocide treatment are usually temporary, and biocides eventually fail. The reasons for biocide failure and the long-term response of the microbial community remain poorly understood. In this study, one-time biocide treatments with glutaraldehyde (GA) and an aldehyde-releasing biocide (ARB) at low (100 ppm) and high (750 ppm) doses were individually applied to a complex SRM community, followed by 1 year of monitoring of the chemical responses and the microbial community succession. The chemical results showed that souring control failed after 7 days at a dose of 100 ppm regardless of the biocide type and lasting souring control for the entire 1-year period was achieved only with ARB at 750 ppm. Microbial community analyses suggested that the high-dose biocide treatments resulted in 1 order of magnitude lower average total microbial abundance and average SRM abundance, compared to the low-dose treatments. The recurrence of souring was associated with reduction of alpha diversity and with long-term microbial community structure changes; therefore, monitoring changes in microbial community metrics may provide early warnings of the failure of a biocide-based souring control program in the field. Furthermore, spore-forming sulfate reducers (Desulfotomaculum and Desulfurispora) were enriched and became dominant in both GA-treated groups, which could cause challenges for the design of long-lasting remedial souring control strategies. IMPORTANCE Reservoir souring is a problem for the oil and gas industry, because H2S corrodes the steel infrastructure, downgrades oil quality, and poses substantial risks to field personnel and the environment. Biocides have been widely applied to remedy souring, but the long-term performance of biocide treatments is hard to predict or to optimize due to limited understanding of the microbial ecology affected by biocide treatment. This study investigates the long-term biocide performance and associated changes in the abundance, diversity, and structure of the souring microbial community, thus advancing the knowledge toward a deeper understanding of the microbial ecology of biocide-treated systems and contributing to the improvement of current biocide-based souring control practices. The study showcases the potential application of incorporating microbial community analyses to forecast souring, and it highlights the long-term consequences of biocide treatment in the microbial communities, with relevance to both operators and regulators.
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Cordier T, Alonso‐Sáez L, Apothéloz‐Perret‐Gentil L, Aylagas E, Bohan DA, Bouchez A, Chariton A, Creer S, Frühe L, Keck F, Keeley N, Laroche O, Leese F, Pochon X, Stoeck T, Pawlowski J, Lanzén A. Ecosystems monitoring powered by environmental genomics: A review of current strategies with an implementation roadmap. Mol Ecol 2021; 30:2937-2958. [PMID: 32416615 PMCID: PMC8358956 DOI: 10.1111/mec.15472] [Citation(s) in RCA: 76] [Impact Index Per Article: 25.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2019] [Revised: 04/25/2020] [Accepted: 05/06/2020] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
A decade after environmental scientists integrated high-throughput sequencing technologies in their toolbox, the genomics-based monitoring of anthropogenic impacts on the biodiversity and functioning of ecosystems is yet to be implemented by regulatory frameworks. Despite the broadly acknowledged potential of environmental genomics to this end, technical limitations and conceptual issues still stand in the way of its broad application by end-users. In addition, the multiplicity of potential implementation strategies may contribute to a perception that the routine application of this methodology is premature or "in development", hence restraining regulators from binding these tools into legal frameworks. Here, we review recent implementations of environmental genomics-based methods, applied to the biomonitoring of ecosystems. By taking a general overview, without narrowing our perspective to particular habitats or groups of organisms, this paper aims to compare, review and discuss the strengths and limitations of four general implementation strategies of environmental genomics for monitoring: (a) Taxonomy-based analyses focused on identification of known bioindicators or described taxa; (b) De novo bioindicator analyses; (c) Structural community metrics including inferred ecological networks; and (d) Functional community metrics (metagenomics or metatranscriptomics). We emphasise the utility of the three latter strategies to integrate meiofauna and microorganisms that are not traditionally utilised in biomonitoring because of difficult taxonomic identification. Finally, we propose a roadmap for the implementation of environmental genomics into routine monitoring programmes that leverage recent analytical advancements, while pointing out current limitations and future research needs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tristan Cordier
- Department of Genetics and EvolutionScience IIIUniversity of GenevaGenevaSwitzerland
| | - Laura Alonso‐Sáez
- AZTIMarine ResearchBasque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA)Spain
| | | | - Eva Aylagas
- Red Sea Research Center (RSRC)Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE)King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)ThuwalSaudi Arabia
| | - David A. Bohan
- AgroécologieINRAEUniversity of BourgogneUniversity Bourgogne Franche‐ComtéDijonFrance
| | | | - Anthony Chariton
- Department of Biological SciencesMacquarie UniversitySydneyNSWAustralia
| | - Simon Creer
- School of Natural SciencesBangor UniversityGwyneddUK
| | - Larissa Frühe
- Department of EcologyTechnische Universität KaiserslauternKaiserslauternGermany
| | | | - Nigel Keeley
- Benthic Resources and Processes GroupInstitute of Marine ResearchTromsøNorway
| | - Olivier Laroche
- Benthic Resources and Processes GroupInstitute of Marine ResearchTromsøNorway
| | - Florian Leese
- Aquatic Ecosystem ResearchFaculty of BiologyUniversity of Duisburg‐EssenEssenGermany
- Centre for Water and Environmental Research (ZWU)University of Duisburg‐EssenEssenGermany
| | - Xavier Pochon
- Coastal & Freshwater GroupCawthron InstituteNelsonNew Zealand
- Institute of Marine ScienceUniversity of AucklandWarkworthNew Zealand
| | - Thorsten Stoeck
- Department of EcologyTechnische Universität KaiserslauternKaiserslauternGermany
| | - Jan Pawlowski
- Department of Genetics and EvolutionScience IIIUniversity of GenevaGenevaSwitzerland
- ID‐Gene EcodiagnosticsGenevaSwitzerland
- Institute of OceanologyPolish Academy of SciencesSopotPoland
| | - Anders Lanzén
- AZTIMarine ResearchBasque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA)Spain
- Basque Foundation for ScienceIKERBASQUEBilbaoSpain
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Wang C, Mao G, Liao K, Ben W, Qiao M, Bai Y, Qu J. Machine learning approach identifies water sample source based on microbial abundance. WATER RESEARCH 2021; 199:117185. [PMID: 33984588 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2021.117185] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2021] [Revised: 04/19/2021] [Accepted: 04/20/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Water quality can change along a river system due to differences in adjacent land use patterns and discharge sources. These variations can induce rapid responses of the aquatic microbial community, which may be an indicator of water quality characteristics. In the current study, we used a random forest model to predict water sample sources from three different river ecosystems along a gradient of anthropogenic disturbance (i.e., less disturbed mountainous area, wastewater discharged urban area, and pesticide and fertilizer applied agricultural area) based on environmental physicochemical indices (PCIs), microbiological indices (MBIs), and their combination. Results showed that among the PCI-based models, using conventional water quality indices as inputs provided markedly better prediction of water sample source than using pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs), and much better prediction than using polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and substituted PAHs (SPAHs). Among the MBI-based models, using the abundances of the top 30 bacteria combined with pathogenic antibiotic resistant bacteria (PARB) as inputs achieved the lowest median out-of-bag error rate (9.9%) and increased median kappa coefficient (0.8694), while adding fungal inputs reduced the kappa coefficient. The model based on the top 30 bacteria still showed an advantage compared with models based on PCIs or the combination of PCIs and MBIs. With improvement in sequencing technology and increase in data availability in the future, the proposed method provides an economical, rapid, and reliable way in which to identify water sample sources based on abundance data of microbial communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chenchen Wang
- Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100035, China; School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Tianjin Chengjian University, Tianjin 300384, China; Tianjin Key Laboratory of Aquatic Science and Technology, Tianjin Chengjian University, Tianjin 300384, China
| | - Guannan Mao
- Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100035, China; Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100035, China
| | - Kailingli Liao
- Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100035, China; Foreign Economic Cooperation Office, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Beijing 100035, China
| | - Weiwei Ben
- Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100035, China
| | - Meng Qiao
- Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100035, China
| | - Yaohui Bai
- Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100035, China.
| | - Jiuhui Qu
- Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100035, China
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García-Jiménez B, Muñoz J, Cabello S, Medina J, Wilkinson MD. Predicting microbiomes through a deep latent space. Bioinformatics 2021; 37:1444-1451. [PMID: 33289510 PMCID: PMC8208755 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btaa971] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2020] [Revised: 10/21/2020] [Accepted: 11/06/2020] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Motivation Microbial communities influence their environment by modifying the availability of compounds, such as nutrients or chemical elicitors. Knowing the microbial composition of a site is therefore relevant to improve productivity or health. However, sequencing facilities are not always available, or may be prohibitively expensive in some cases. Thus, it would be desirable to computationally predict the microbial composition from more accessible, easily-measured features. Results Integrating deep learning techniques with microbiome data, we propose an artificial neural network architecture based on heterogeneous autoencoders to condense the long vector of microbial abundance values into a deep latent space representation. Then, we design a model to predict the deep latent space and, consequently, to predict the complete microbial composition using environmental features as input. The performance of our system is examined using the rhizosphere microbiome of Maize. We reconstruct the microbial composition (717 taxa) from the deep latent space (10 values) with high fidelity (>0.9 Pearson correlation). We then successfully predict microbial composition from environmental variables, such as plant age, temperature or precipitation (0.73 Pearson correlation, 0.42 Bray–Curtis). We extend this to predict microbiome composition under hypothetical scenarios, such as future climate change conditions. Finally, via transfer learning, we predict microbial composition in a distinct scenario with only 100 sequences, and distinct environmental features. We propose that our deep latent space may assist microbiome-engineering strategies when technical or financial resources are limited, through predicting current or future microbiome compositions. Availability and implementation Software, results and data are available at https://github.com/jorgemf/DeepLatentMicrobiome Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
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Affiliation(s)
- Beatriz García-Jiménez
- Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (CBGP, UPM-INIA), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) - Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA), Campus de Montegancedo-UPM, 28223-Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain
| | - Jorge Muñoz
- Serendeepia Research, 28905 Getafe (Madrid), Spain
| | - Sara Cabello
- Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (CBGP, UPM-INIA), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) - Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA), Campus de Montegancedo-UPM, 28223-Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain
| | - Joaquín Medina
- Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (CBGP, UPM-INIA), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) - Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA), Campus de Montegancedo-UPM, 28223-Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain
| | - Mark D Wilkinson
- Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (CBGP, UPM-INIA), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) - Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA), Campus de Montegancedo-UPM, 28223-Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain.,Departamento de Biotecnología-Biología Vegetal, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Agronómica, Alimentaria y de Biosistemas, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Madrid, Spain
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Dully V, Wilding TA, Mühlhaus T, Stoeck T. Identifying the minimum amplicon sequence depth to adequately predict classes in eDNA-based marine biomonitoring using supervised machine learning. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2021; 19:2256-2268. [PMID: 33995917 PMCID: PMC8093828 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2021.04.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2021] [Revised: 03/30/2021] [Accepted: 04/01/2021] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Environmental DNA metabarcoding is a powerful approach for use in biomonitoring and impact assessments. Amplicon-based eDNA sequence data are characteristically highly divergent in sequencing depth (total reads per sample) as influenced inter alia by the number of samples simultaneously analyzed per sequencing run. The random forest (RF) machine learning algorithm has been successfully employed to accurately classify unknown samples into monitoring categories. To employ RF to eDNA data, and avoid sequencing-depth artifacts, sequence data across samples are normalized using rarefaction, a process that inherently loses information. The aim of this study was to inform future sampling designs in terms of the relationship between sampling depth and RF accuracy. We analyzed three published and one new bacterial amplicon datasets, using a RF, based initially on the maximal rarefied data available (minimum mean of > 30,000 reads across all datasets) to give our baseline performance. We then evaluated the RF classification success based on increasingly rarefied datasets. We found that extreme to moderate rarefaction (50-5000 sequences per sample) was sufficient to achieve prediction performance commensurate to the full data, depending on the classification task. We did not find that the number of classification classes, data balance across classes, or the total number of sequences or samples, were associated with predictive accuracy. We identified the ability of the training data to adequately characterize the classes being mapped as the most important criterion and discuss how this finding can inform future sampling design for eDNA based biomonitoring to reduce costs and computation time.
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Key Words
- 16S rRNA
- AMBI, AZTI's marine biotic index
- ASV, Amplicon Sequence Variants
- AZE, allowable zone of effect, intermediate impact zone
- BI, biotic index
- BallWa, ballast water dataset
- BasCo, Basque coast dataset
- Biomonitoring
- CE, cage edge
- CV, Coefficient of Variance
- DADA2, Divisive Amplicon Denoising Algorithm
- EQ, environmental quality
- Environmental DNA
- FM, full model
- MDS, multidimensional scaling
- Machine learning
- Marine
- NEB, New England Biolabs
- NW, north west
- NorSa, Norway salmon dataset
- OOB-error, out-of-bag error estimate
- PCR, polymerase chain reaction
- REF, reference site
- RF, random forest algorithm
- SML, supervised machine learning
- ScoSa, Scottish salmon farm dataset
- V3-V4, hypervariable gene regions of the 16s rRNA
- bp, base pairs
- eDNA, environmental deoxyribonucleic acid
- microgAMBI, AZTI's marine biotic index based on microbial genes
- mtry, numbers of variables tried at each split
- n, number
- rRNA, small subunit prokaryotic ribosomal ribonucleic acid
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Affiliation(s)
- Verena Dully
- Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, Ecology, D-67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany
| | - Thomas A. Wilding
- Scottish Association for Marine Science, Scottish Marine Institute, Oban, Scotland, United Kingdom
| | - Timo Mühlhaus
- Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, Computational Systems Biology, D-67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany
| | - Thorsten Stoeck
- Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, Ecology, D-67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany
- Corresponding author.
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Lui LM, Majumder ELW, Smith HJ, Carlson HK, von Netzer F, Fields MW, Stahl DA, Zhou J, Hazen TC, Baliga NS, Adams PD, Arkin AP. Mechanism Across Scales: A Holistic Modeling Framework Integrating Laboratory and Field Studies for Microbial Ecology. Front Microbiol 2021; 12:642422. [PMID: 33841364 PMCID: PMC8024649 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.642422] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2020] [Accepted: 02/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Over the last century, leaps in technology for imaging, sampling, detection, high-throughput sequencing, and -omics analyses have revolutionized microbial ecology to enable rapid acquisition of extensive datasets for microbial communities across the ever-increasing temporal and spatial scales. The present challenge is capitalizing on our enhanced abilities of observation and integrating diverse data types from different scales, resolutions, and disciplines to reach a causal and mechanistic understanding of how microbial communities transform and respond to perturbations in the environment. This type of causal and mechanistic understanding will make predictions of microbial community behavior more robust and actionable in addressing microbially mediated global problems. To discern drivers of microbial community assembly and function, we recognize the need for a conceptual, quantitative framework that connects measurements of genomic potential, the environment, and ecological and physical forces to rates of microbial growth at specific locations. We describe the Framework for Integrated, Conceptual, and Systematic Microbial Ecology (FICSME), an experimental design framework for conducting process-focused microbial ecology studies that incorporates biological, chemical, and physical drivers of a microbial system into a conceptual model. Through iterative cycles that advance our understanding of the coupling across scales and processes, we can reliably predict how perturbations to microbial systems impact ecosystem-scale processes or vice versa. We describe an approach and potential applications for using the FICSME to elucidate the mechanisms of globally important ecological and physical processes, toward attaining the goal of predicting the structure and function of microbial communities in chemically complex natural environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lauren M. Lui
- Division of Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States
| | - Erica L.-W. Majumder
- Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, United States
| | - Heidi J. Smith
- Center for Biofilm Engineering, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, United States
| | - Hans K. Carlson
- Division of Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States
| | - Frederick von Netzer
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
| | - Matthew W. Fields
- Center for Biofilm Engineering, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, United States
| | - David A. Stahl
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
| | - Jizhong Zhou
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, Department of Microbiology & Plant Biology, School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, United States
| | - Terry C. Hazen
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, United States
| | | | - Paul D. Adams
- Division of Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
| | - Adam P. Arkin
- Division of Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
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Abstract
Nitrate-reducing bacteria (NRB) and sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) colonize diverse anoxic environments, including soil subsurface, groundwater, and wastewater. NRB and SRB compete for resources, and their interplay has major implications on the global cycling of nitrogen and sulfur species, with undesirable outcomes in some contexts. Competition between nitrate-reducing bacteria (NRB) and sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) for resources in anoxic environments is generally thought to be governed largely by thermodynamics. It is now recognized that intermediates of nitrogen and sulfur cycling (e.g., hydrogen sulfide, nitrite, etc.) can also directly impact NRB and SRB activities in freshwater, wastewater, and sediment and therefore may play important roles in competitive interactions. Here, through comparative transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses, we have uncovered mechanisms of hydrogen sulfide- and cysteine-mediated inhibition of nitrate respiratory growth for the NRB Intrasporangium calvum C5. Specifically, the systems analysis predicted that cysteine and hydrogen sulfide inhibit growth of I. calvum C5 by disrupting distinct steps across multiple pathways, including branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) biosynthesis, utilization of specific carbon sources, and cofactor metabolism. We have validated these predictions by demonstrating that complementation with BCAAs and specific carbon sources relieves the growth inhibitory effects of cysteine and hydrogen sulfide. We discuss how these mechanistic insights give new context to the interplay and stratification of NRB and SRB in diverse environments. IMPORTANCE Nitrate-reducing bacteria (NRB) and sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) colonize diverse anoxic environments, including soil subsurface, groundwater, and wastewater. NRB and SRB compete for resources, and their interplay has major implications on the global cycling of nitrogen and sulfur species, with undesirable outcomes in some contexts. For instance, the removal of reactive nitrogen species by NRB is desirable for wastewater treatment, but in agricultural soils, NRB can drive the conversion of nitrates from fertilizers into nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas. Similarly, the hydrogen sulfide produced by SRB can help sequester and immobilize toxic heavy metals but is undesirable in oil wells where competition between SRB and NRB has been exploited to suppress hydrogen sulfide production. By characterizing how reduced sulfur compounds inhibit growth and activity of NRB, we have gained systems-level and mechanistic insight into the interplay of these two important groups of organisms and drivers of their stratification in diverse environments.
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Ruiz-González C, Rodellas V, Garcia-Orellana J. The microbial dimension of submarine groundwater discharge: current challenges and future directions. FEMS Microbiol Rev 2021; 45:6128669. [PMID: 33538813 PMCID: PMC8498565 DOI: 10.1093/femsre/fuab010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2020] [Accepted: 01/28/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite the relevance of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) for ocean biogeochemistry, the microbial dimension of SGD remains poorly understood. SGD can influence marine microbial communities through supplying chemical compounds and microorganisms, and in turn, microbes at the land–ocean transition zone determine the chemistry of the groundwater reaching the ocean. However, compared with inland groundwater, little is known about microbial communities in coastal aquifers. Here, we review the state of the art of the microbial dimension of SGD, with emphasis on prokaryotes, and identify current challenges and future directions. Main challenges include improving the diversity description of groundwater microbiota, characterized by ultrasmall, inactive and novel taxa, and by high ratios of sediment-attached versus free-living cells. Studies should explore microbial dynamics and their role in chemical cycles in coastal aquifers, the bidirectional dispersal of groundwater and seawater microorganisms, and marine bacterioplankton responses to SGD. This will require not only combining sequencing methods, visualization and linking taxonomy to activity but also considering the entire groundwater–marine continuum. Interactions between traditionally independent disciplines (e.g. hydrogeology, microbial ecology) are needed to frame the study of terrestrial and aquatic microorganisms beyond the limits of their presumed habitats, and to foster our understanding of SGD processes and their influence in coastal biogeochemical cycles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clara Ruiz-González
- Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC). Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta 37-49, E08003 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Valentí Rodellas
- Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA-UAB), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, E08193 Bellaterra, Spain
| | - Jordi Garcia-Orellana
- Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA-UAB), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, E08193 Bellaterra, Spain.,Departament de Física, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, E08193 Bellaterra, Spain
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50
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Ghannam RB, Techtmann SM. Machine learning applications in microbial ecology, human microbiome studies, and environmental monitoring. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2021; 19:1092-1107. [PMID: 33680353 PMCID: PMC7892807 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2021.01.028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 24.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2020] [Revised: 01/16/2021] [Accepted: 01/18/2021] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Advances in nucleic acid sequencing technology have enabled expansion of our ability to profile microbial diversity. These large datasets of taxonomic and functional diversity are key to better understanding microbial ecology. Machine learning has proven to be a useful approach for analyzing microbial community data and making predictions about outcomes including human and environmental health. Machine learning applied to microbial community profiles has been used to predict disease states in human health, environmental quality and presence of contamination in the environment, and as trace evidence in forensics. Machine learning has appeal as a powerful tool that can provide deep insights into microbial communities and identify patterns in microbial community data. However, often machine learning models can be used as black boxes to predict a specific outcome, with little understanding of how the models arrived at predictions. Complex machine learning algorithms often may value higher accuracy and performance at the sacrifice of interpretability. In order to leverage machine learning into more translational research related to the microbiome and strengthen our ability to extract meaningful biological information, it is important for models to be interpretable. Here we review current trends in machine learning applications in microbial ecology as well as some of the important challenges and opportunities for more broad application of machine learning to understanding microbial communities.
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Key Words
- 16S rRNA
- ANN, Artificial Neural Networks
- ASV, Amplicon Sequence Variant
- AUC, Area Under the Curve
- Forensics
- GB, Gradient Boosting
- ML, Machine Learning
- Machine learning
- Marker genes
- Metagenomics
- PCoA, Principal Coordinate Analysis
- RF, Random Forests
- ROC, Receiver Operating Characteristic
- SML, Supervised Machine Learning
- SVM, Support Vector Machines
- USML, Unsupervised Machine Learning
- tSNE, t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryan B. Ghannam
- Department of Biological Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton MI, United States
| | - Stephen M. Techtmann
- Department of Biological Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton MI, United States
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