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Viver T, Conrad RE, Rodriguez-R LM, Ramírez AS, Venter SN, Rocha-Cárdenas J, Llabrés M, Amann R, Konstantinidis KT, Rossello-Mora R. Towards estimating the number of strains that make up a natural bacterial population. Nat Commun 2024; 15:544. [PMID: 38228587 PMCID: PMC10791622 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-44622-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2023] [Accepted: 12/19/2023] [Indexed: 01/18/2024] Open
Abstract
What a strain is and how many strains make up a natural bacterial population remain elusive concepts despite their apparent importance for assessing the role of intra-population diversity in disease emergence or response to environmental perturbations. To advance these concepts, we sequenced 138 randomly selected Salinibacter ruber isolates from two solar salterns and assessed these genomes against companion short-read metagenomes from the same samples. The distribution of genome-aggregate average nucleotide identity (ANI) values among these isolates revealed a bimodal distribution, with four-fold lower occurrence of values between 99.2% and 99.8% relative to ANI >99.8% or <99.2%, revealing a natural "gap" in the sequence space within species. Accordingly, we used this ANI gap to define genomovars and a higher ANI value of >99.99% and shared gene-content >99.0% to define strains. Using these thresholds and extrapolating from how many metagenomic reads each genomovar uniquely recruited, we estimated that -although our 138 isolates represented about 80% of the Sal. ruber population- the total population in one saltern pond is composed of 5,500 to 11,000 genomovars, the great majority of which appear to be rare in-situ. These data also revealed that the most frequently recovered isolate in lab media was often not the most abundant genomovar in-situ, suggesting that cultivation biases are significant, even in cases that cultivation procedures are thought to be robust. The methodology and ANI thresholds outlined here should represent a useful guide for future microdiversity surveys of additional microbial species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomeu Viver
- Marine Microbiology Group, Department of Animal and Microbial Biodiversity, Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA, CSIC-UIB), Esporles, Spain.
- Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany.
| | - Roth E Conrad
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Luis M Rodriguez-R
- Department of Microbiology, and Digital Science Center (DiSC), Universität of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Ana S Ramírez
- Unidad de Epidemiología y Medicina Preventiva, IUSA, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, C/Trasmontaña s/n, Arucas, 35413, Canary Islands, Spain
| | - Stephanus N Venter
- Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, and Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
| | - Jairo Rocha-Cárdenas
- Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, 07122, Spain
| | - Mercè Llabrés
- Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, 07122, Spain
| | - Rudolf Amann
- Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany
| | - Konstantinos T Konstantinidis
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
| | - Ramon Rossello-Mora
- Marine Microbiology Group, Department of Animal and Microbial Biodiversity, Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA, CSIC-UIB), Esporles, Spain.
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Orellana LH, Krüger K, Sidhu C, Amann R. Comparing genomes recovered from time-series metagenomes using long- and short-read sequencing technologies. Microbiome 2023; 11:105. [PMID: 37179340 PMCID: PMC10182627 DOI: 10.1186/s40168-023-01557-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2022] [Accepted: 04/26/2023] [Indexed: 05/15/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Over the past years, sequencing technologies have expanded our ability to examine novel microbial metabolisms and diversity previously obscured by isolation approaches. Long-read sequencing promises to revolutionize the metagenomic field and recover less fragmented genomes from environmental samples. Nonetheless, how to best benefit from long-read sequencing and whether long-read sequencing can provide recovered genomes of similar characteristics as short-read approaches remains unclear. RESULTS We recovered metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from the free-living fraction at four-time points during a spring bloom in the North Sea. The taxonomic composition of all MAGs recovered was comparable between technologies. However, differences consisted of higher sequencing depth for contigs and higher genome population diversity in short-read compared to long-read metagenomes. When pairing population genomes recovered from both sequencing approaches that shared ≥ 99% average nucleotide identity, long-read MAGs were composed of fewer contigs, a higher N50, and a higher number of predicted genes when compared to short-read MAGs. Moreover, 88% of the total long-read MAGs carried a 16S rRNA gene compared to only 23% of MAGs recovered from short-read metagenomes. Relative abundances for population genomes recovered using both technologies were similar, although disagreements were observed for high and low GC content MAGs. CONCLUSIONS Our results highlight that short-read technologies recovered more MAGs and a higher number of species than long-read due to an overall higher sequencing depth. Long-read samples produced higher quality MAGs and similar species composition compared to short-read sequencing. Differences in the GC content recovered by each sequencing technology resulted in divergences in the diversity recovered and relative abundance of MAGs within the GC content boundaries.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luis H Orellana
- Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Celsiusstraße 1, Bremen, 28359, Germany.
| | - Karen Krüger
- Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Celsiusstraße 1, Bremen, 28359, Germany
| | - Chandni Sidhu
- Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Celsiusstraße 1, Bremen, 28359, Germany
| | - Rudolf Amann
- Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Celsiusstraße 1, Bremen, 28359, Germany
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Viver T, Conrad RE, Lucio M, Harir M, Urdiain M, Gago JF, Suárez-Suárez A, Bustos-Caparros E, Sanchez-Martinez R, Mayol E, Fassetta F, Pang J, Mădălin Gridan I, Venter S, Santos F, Baxter B, Llames ME, Cristea A, Banciu HL, Hedlund BP, Stott MB, Kämpfer P, Amann R, Schmitt-Kopplin P, Konstantinidis KT, Rossello-Mora R. Description of two cultivated and two uncultivated new Salinibacter species, one named following the rules of the bacteriological code: Salinibacter grassmerensis sp. nov.; and three named following the rules of the SeqCode: Salinibacter pepae sp. nov., Salinibacter abyssi sp. nov., and Salinibacter pampae sp. nov. Syst Appl Microbiol 2023; 46:126416. [PMID: 36965279 DOI: 10.1016/j.syapm.2023.126416] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2023] [Revised: 03/07/2023] [Accepted: 03/08/2023] [Indexed: 03/17/2023]
Abstract
Current -omics methods allow the collection of a large amount of information that helps in describing the microbial diversity in nature. Here, and as a result of a culturomic approach that rendered the collection of thousands of isolates from 5 different hypersaline sites (in Spain, USA and New Zealand), we obtained 21 strains that represent two new Salinibacter species. For these species we propose the names Salinibacter pepae sp. nov. and Salinibacter grassmerensis sp. nov. (showing average nucleotide identity (ANI) values < 95.09% and 87.08% with Sal. ruber M31T, respectively). Metabolomics revealed species-specific discriminative profiles. Sal. ruber strains were distinguished by a higher percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids and specific N-functionalized fatty acids; and Sal. altiplanensis was distinguished by an increased number of glycosylated molecules. Based on sequence characteristics and inferred phenotype of metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), we describe two new members of the genus Salinibacter. These species dominated in different sites and always coexisted with Sal. ruber and Sal. pepae. Based on the MAGs from three Argentinian lakes in the Pampa region of Argentina and the MAG of the Romanian lake Fără Fund, we describe the species Salinibacter pampae sp. nov. and Salinibacter abyssi sp. nov. respectively (showing ANI values 90.94% and 91.48% with Sal. ruber M31T, respectively). Sal. grassmerensis sp. nov. name was formed according to the rules of the International Code for Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP), and Sal. pepae, Sal. pampae sp. nov. and Sal. abyssi sp. nov. are proposed following the rules of the newly published Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes Described from Sequence Data (SeqCode). This work constitutes an example on how classification under ICNP and SeqCode can coexist, and how the official naming a cultivated organism for which the deposit in public repositories is difficult finds an intermediate solution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomeu Viver
- Marine Microbiology Group, Department of Animal and Microbial Biodiversity, Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA, CSIC-UIB), Esporles, Spain; Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany.
| | - Roth E Conrad
- Ocean Science & Engineering, School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA; School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Marianna Lucio
- Research Unit Analytical BioGeoChemistry, Helmholtz Munich, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany
| | - Mourad Harir
- Research Unit Analytical BioGeoChemistry, Helmholtz Munich, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany; Chair of Analytical Food Chemistry, Technical University Munich, Maximus-von-Imhof-Forum 2, 85354 Freising, Germany
| | - Mercedes Urdiain
- Marine Microbiology Group, Department of Animal and Microbial Biodiversity, Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA, CSIC-UIB), Esporles, Spain
| | - Juan F Gago
- Marine Microbiology Group, Department of Animal and Microbial Biodiversity, Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA, CSIC-UIB), Esporles, Spain
| | - Ana Suárez-Suárez
- Marine Microbiology Group, Department of Animal and Microbial Biodiversity, Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA, CSIC-UIB), Esporles, Spain
| | - Esteban Bustos-Caparros
- Marine Microbiology Group, Department of Animal and Microbial Biodiversity, Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA, CSIC-UIB), Esporles, Spain
| | - Rodrigo Sanchez-Martinez
- Department of Physiology, Genetics and Microbiology, University of Alicante, 03690, San Vicent del Raspeig, Alicante, Spain
| | - Eva Mayol
- Department of Physiology, Genetics and Microbiology, University of Alicante, 03690, San Vicent del Raspeig, Alicante, Spain
| | - Federico Fassetta
- Laboratorio de Ecología Acuática, Instituto Tecnológico Chascomús (INTECH)-CONICET-UNSAM, Escuela de Bio y Nanotecnologías -UNSAM, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Jinfeng Pang
- School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154-4004, USA
| | - Ionuț Mădălin Gridan
- Doctoral School of Integrative Biology, Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
| | - Stephanus Venter
- Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, and Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
| | - Fernando Santos
- Department of Physiology, Genetics and Microbiology, University of Alicante, 03690, San Vicent del Raspeig, Alicante, Spain
| | - Bonnie Baxter
- Great Salt Lake Institute, Westminster College, Salt Lake City, UT, 84105, USA
| | - María E Llames
- Laboratorio de Ecología Acuática, Instituto Tecnológico Chascomús (INTECH)-CONICET-UNSAM, Escuela de Bio y Nanotecnologías -UNSAM, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Adorján Cristea
- Department of Taxonomy and Ecology, Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj‑Napoca, Romania
| | - Horia L Banciu
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj‑Napoca, Romania; Emil G. Racoviță Institute, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj‑Napoca, Romania
| | - Brian P Hedlund
- School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154-4004, USA
| | - Matthew B Stott
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
| | - Peter Kämpfer
- Institute of Applied Microbiology (IFZ), Justus Liebig Universität Giessen, Giessen, Germany
| | - Rudolf Amann
- Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany
| | - Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin
- Research Unit Analytical BioGeoChemistry, Helmholtz Munich, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany; Chair of Analytical Food Chemistry, Technical University Munich, Maximus-von-Imhof-Forum 2, 85354 Freising, Germany
| | - Konstantinos T Konstantinidis
- Ocean Science & Engineering, School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA; School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Ramon Rossello-Mora
- Marine Microbiology Group, Department of Animal and Microbial Biodiversity, Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA, CSIC-UIB), Esporles, Spain.
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Cotto I, Vilardi KJ, Huo L, Fogarty EC, Khunjar W, Wilson C, De Clippeleir H, Gilmore K, Bailey E, Lücker S, Pinto AJ. Low diversity and microdiversity of comammox bacteria in wastewater systems suggest specific adaptations within the Ca. Nitrospira nitrosa cluster. Water Res 2023; 229:119497. [PMID: 36563511 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2022.119497] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2022] [Revised: 12/12/2022] [Accepted: 12/13/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Studies have found Ca. Nitrospira nitrosa-like bacteria to be the principal or sole comammox bacteria in nitrogen removal systems for wastewater treatment. In contrast, multiple populations of strict ammonia and nitrite oxidizers co-exist in similar systems. This apparent lack of diversity is surprising and could impact the feasibility of leveraging comammox bacteria for nitrogen removal. We used full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing and genome-resolved metagenomics to compare the species-level diversity of comammox bacteria with that of strict nitrifiers in full-scale wastewater treatment systems and assess whether this comparison is consistent or diverged at the strain-level. Full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing indicated that Nitrosomonas-like bacteria exhibited higher species-level diversity in comparison with other nitrifying bacteria, while the strain-level diversity (also called microdiversity) of most Nitrospira-like bacteria were higher than Nitrosomonas-like bacteria with few exceptions (one Nitrospira lineage II population). Comammox bacterial metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs) were associated with Ca. Nitrospira nitrosa. The average amino acid identity between principal comammox bacterial MAGs (93% ± 3) across systems was significantly higher than that of the Nitrosomonas-like ammonia oxidizers (73% ± 8), the Nitrospira_A-like nitrite oxidizer (85% ± 4), and the Nitrospira_D-like nitrite oxidizer (83% ± 1). This demonstrated the low species-level diversity of comammox bacteria compared with strict nitrifiers and further suggests that the same comammox population was detected in all systems. Comammox bacteria (Nitrospira lineage II), Nitrosomonas and, Nitrospira_D (Nitrospira lineage II) MAGs were significantly less microdiverse than the Nitrospira_A (lineage I) MAGs. Interestingly, strain-resolved analysis also indicates that different nitrogen removal systems harbor different comammox bacterial strains within the Ca. Nitrospira nitrosa cluster. These results suggest that comammox bacteria associated with Ca. Nitrospira nitrosa have low species- and strain-level diversity in nitrogen removal systems and may thus harbor specific adaptations to the wastewater ecosystem.
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Affiliation(s)
- Irmarie Cotto
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Katherine J Vilardi
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Linxuan Huo
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, United States
| | - Emily C Fogarty
- Committee on Microbiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States
| | | | | | | | - Kevin Gilmore
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, United States
| | - Erika Bailey
- City of Raleigh Public Utilities, Raleigh, NC, United States
| | - Sebastian Lücker
- Department of Microbiology, RIBES, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Ameet J Pinto
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, United States.
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Gupta KR, Arora G, Mattoo A, Sajid A. Stringent Response in Mycobacteria: From Biology to Therapeutic Potential. Pathogens 2021; 10:pathogens10111417. [PMID: 34832573 PMCID: PMC8622095 DOI: 10.3390/pathogens10111417] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2021] [Revised: 10/18/2021] [Accepted: 10/26/2021] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a human pathogen that can thrive inside the host immune cells for several years and cause tuberculosis. This is due to the propensity of M. tuberculosis to synthesize a sturdy cell wall, shift metabolism and growth, secrete virulence factors to manipulate host immunity, and exhibit stringent response. These attributes help M. tuberculosis to manage the host response, and successfully establish and maintain an infection even under nutrient-deprived stress conditions for years. In this review, we will discuss the importance of mycobacterial stringent response under different stress conditions. The stringent response is mediated through small signaling molecules called alarmones “(pp)pGpp”. The synthesis and degradation of these alarmones in mycobacteria are mediated by Rel protein, which is both (p)ppGpp synthetase and hydrolase. Rel is important for all central dogma processes—DNA replication, transcription, and translation—in addition to regulating virulence, drug resistance, and biofilm formation. Rel also plays an important role in the latent infection of M. tuberculosis. Here, we have discussed the literature on alarmones and Rel proteins in mycobacteria and highlight that (p)ppGpp-analogs and Rel inhibitors could be designed and used as antimycobacterial compounds against M. tuberculosis and non-tuberculous mycobacterial infections.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Gunjan Arora
- Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA;
| | - Abid Mattoo
- Pharmaceutical Development, Ultragenyx Gene Therapy, Woburn, MA 01801, USA;
| | - Andaleeb Sajid
- Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA;
- Correspondence: or
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