Taxonomic diversity of microbial communities in sub-seafloor hydrothermal sediments of the active Santorini-Kolumbo volcanic field.

Introduction: Active hydrothermal vents of volcanic origin provide a remarkable manifestation of life on Earth under extreme conditions, which may have consequences for our understanding of habitability on other terrestrial bodies as well. Methods: Here, we performed for the first time Illumina sequencing of bacterial and archaeal communities on sub-seafloor samples collected from the Santorini-Kolumbo volcanic field. A total of 19 (3-m long) gravity corers were collected and processed for microbial community analysis. Results: From a total of 6,46,671 produced V4 sequences for all samples, a total of 10,496 different Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) were identified that were assigned to 40 bacterial and 9 archaeal phyla and 14 candidate divisions. On average, the most abundant phyla in all samples were Chloroflexi (Chloroflexota) (24.62%), followed by Proteobacteria (Pseudomonadota) (11.29%), Firmicutes (Bacillota) (10.73%), Crenarchaeota (Thermoproteota) (8.55%), and Acidobacteria (Acidobacteriota) (8.07%). At the genus level, a total of 286 known genera and candidate genera were mostly dominated by members of Bacillus, Thermoflexus, Desulfatiglans, Pseudoalteromonas, and Pseudomonas. Discussion: In most of the stations, the Chao1 values at the deeper layers were comparable to the surface sediment samples denoting the high diversity in the subsurface of these ecosystems. Heatmap analysis based on the 100 most abundant OTUs, grouped the sampling stations according to their geographical location, placing together the two hottest stations (up to 99°C). This result indicates that this specific area within the active Kolumbo crater create a distinct niche, where microorganisms with adaptation strategies to withstand heat stresses can thrive, such as the endospore-forming Firmicutes.

What Was Old Is New Again: The Pennate Diatom Haslea ostrearia (Gaillon) Simonsen in the Multi-Omic Age.

The marine pennate diatom Haslea ostrearia has long been known for its characteristic blue pigment marennine, which is responsible for the greening of invertebrate gills, a natural phenomenon of great importance for the oyster industry. For two centuries, this taxon was considered unique; however, the recent description of a new blue Haslea species revealed unsuspected biodiversity. Marennine-like pigments are natural blue dyes that display various biological activities-e.g., antibacterial, antioxidant and antiproliferative-with a great potential for applications in the food, feed, cosmetic and health industries. Regarding fundamental prospects, researchers use model organisms as standards to study cellular and physiological processes in other organisms, and there is a growing and crucial need for more, new and unconventional model organisms to better correspond to the diversity of the tree of life. The present work, thus, advocates for establishing H. ostrearia as a new model organism by presenting its pros and cons-i.e., the interesting aspects of this peculiar diatom (representative of benthic-epiphytic phytoplankton, with original behavior and chemodiversity, controlled sexual reproduction, fundamental and applied-oriented importance, reference genome, and transcriptome will soon be available); it will also present the difficulties encountered before this becomes a reality as it is for other diatom models (the genetics of the species in its infancy, the transformation feasibility to be explored, the routine methods needed to cryopreserve strains of interest).

0s and 1s in marine molecular research: a regional HPC perspective.

High-performance computing (HPC) systems have become indispensable for modern marine research, providing support to an increasing number and diversity of users. Pairing with the impetus offered by high-throughput methods to key areas such as non-model organism studies, their operation continuously evolves to meet the corresponding computational challenges. Here, we present a Tier 2 (regional) HPC facility, operating for over a decade at the Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology, and Aquaculture of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research in Greece. Strategic choices made in design and upgrades aimed to strike a balance between depth (the need for a few high-memory nodes) and breadth (a number of slimmer nodes), as dictated by the idiosyncrasy of the supported research. Qualitative computational requirement analysis of the latter revealed the diversity of marine fields, methods, and approaches adopted to translate data into knowledge. In addition, hardware and software architectures, usage statistics, policy, and user management aspects of the facility are presented. Drawing upon the last decade's experience from the different levels of operation of the Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology, and Aquaculture HPC facility, a number of lessons are presented; these have contributed to the facility's future directions in light of emerging distribution technologies (e.g., containers) and Research Infrastructure evolution. In combination with detailed knowledge of the facility usage and its upcoming upgrade, future collaborations in marine research and beyond are envisioned.

Genomic adaptation of Pseudomonas strains to acidity and antibiotics in hydrothermal vents at Kolumbo submarine volcano, Greece.

Although the rise of antibiotic and multidrug resistant bacteria is one of the biggest current threats to human health, our understanding of the mechanisms involved in antibiotic resistance selection remains scarce. We performed whole genome sequencing of 21 Pseudomonas strains, previously isolated from an active submarine volcano of Greece, the Kolumbo volcano. Our goal was to identify the genetic basis of the enhanced co-tolerance to antibiotics and acidity of these Pseudomonas strains. Pangenome analysis identified 10,908 Gene Clusters (GCs). It revealed that the numbers of phage-related GCs and sigma factors, which both provide the mechanisms of adaptation to environmental stressors, were much higher in the high tolerant Pseudomonas strains compared to the rest ones. All identified GCs of these strains were associated with antimicrobial and multidrug resistance. The present study provides strong evidence that the CO2-rich seawater of the volcano associated with low pH might be a reservoir of microorganisms carrying multidrug efflux-mediated systems and pumps. We, therefore, suggest further studies of other extreme environments (or ecosystems) and their associated physicochemical parameters (or factors) in the rise of antibiotic resistance.

Correction to: Microbial community differentiation between active and inactive sulfide chimneys of the Kolumbo submarine volcano, Hellenic Volcanic Arc.

In the original publication there is a mistake in the supplementary material. The correct supplementary material is provided in this correction article.

Microbial community differentiation between active and inactive sulfide chimneys of the Kolumbo submarine volcano, Hellenic Volcanic Arc.

Over the last decades, there has been growing interest about the ecological role of hydrothermal sulfide chimneys, their microbial diversity and associated biotechnological potential. Here, we performed dual-index Illumina sequencing of bacterial and archaeal communities on active and inactive sulfide chimneys collected from the Kolumbo hydrothermal field, situated on a geodynamic convergent setting. A total of 15,701 OTUs (operational taxonomic units) were assigned to 56 bacterial and 3 archaeal phyla, 133 bacterial and 16 archaeal classes. Active chimney communities were dominated by OTUs related to thermophilic members of Epsilonproteobacteria, Aquificae and Deltaproteobacteria. Inactive chimney communities were dominated by an OTU closely related to the archaeon Nitrosopumilus sp., and by members of Gammaproteobacteria, Deltaproteobacteria, Planctomycetes and Bacteroidetes. These lineages are closely related to phylotypes typically involved in iron, sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen and methane cycling. Overall, the inactive sulfide chimneys presented highly diverse and uniform microbial communities, in contrast to the active chimney communities, which were dominated by chemolithoautotrophic and thermophilic lineages. This study represents one of the most comprehensive investigations of microbial diversity in submarine chimneys and elucidates how the dissipation of hydrothermal activity affects the structure of microbial consortia in these extreme ecological niches.

Dominance of candidate Saccharibacteria in a membrane bioreactor treating medium age landfill leachate: Effects of organic load on microbial communities, hydrolytic potential and extracellular polymeric substances.

A membrane bioreactor (MBR), accomplishing high nitrogen removal efficiencies, was evaluated under various landfill leachate concentrations (50, 75 and 100% v/v). Proteinous and carbohydrate extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and soluble microbial product (SMP) were strongly correlated (p<0.01) with organic load, salinity and NH4+-N. Exceptionally high ß-glucosidase activities (6700-10,100Ug-1) were determined during MBR operation with 50% v/v leachate, as a result of the low organic carbon availability that extendedly induced ß-glucosidases to breakdown the least biodegradable organic fraction. Illumina sequencing revealed that candidate Saccharibacteria were dominant, independently of the leachate concentration applied, whereas other microbiota (21.2% of total reads) disappeared when undiluted leachate was used. Fungal taxa shifted from a Saccharomyces- to a newly-described Cryptomycota-based community with increasing leachate concentration. Indeed, this is the first report on the dominance of candidate Saccharibacteria and on the examination of their metabolic behavior in a bioreactor treating real wastewater.

Metagenomic 16s rRNA investigation of microbial communities in the Black Sea estuaries in South-West of Ukraine.

The Black Sea estuaries represent interfaces of the sea and river environments. Microorganisms that inhabit estuarine water play an integral role in all biochemical processes that occur there and form unique ecosystems. There are many estuaries located in the Southern-Western part of Ukraine and some of them are already separated from the sea. The aim of this research was to determine the composition of microbial communities in the Khadzhibey, Dniester and Sukhyi estuaries by metagenomic 16S rDNA analysis. This study is the first complex analysis of estuarine microbiota based on isolation of total DNA from a biome that was further subjected to sequencing. DNA was extracted from water samples and sequenced on the Illumina Miseq platform using primers to the V4 variable region of the 16S rRNA gene. Computer analysis of the obtained raw sequences was done with QIIME (Quantitative Insights Into Microbial Ecology) software. As the outcome, 57970 nucleotide sequences were retrieved. Bioinformatic analysis of bacterial community in the studied samples demonstrated a high taxonomic diversity of Prokaryotes at above genus level. It was shown that majority of 16S rDNA bacterial sequences detected in the estuarine samples belonged to phyla Cyanobacteria, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, Planctomycetes. The Khadhzibey estuary was dominated by the Proteobacteria phylum, while Dniester and Sukhyi estuaries were characterized by dominance of Cyanobacteria. The differences in bacterial populations between the Khadzhibey, Dniester and Sukhyi estuaries were demonstrated through the Beta-diversity analysis. It showed that the Khadzhibey estuary's microbial community significantly varies from the Sukhyi and Dniester estuaries. The majority of identified bacterial species is known as typical inhabitants of marine environments, however, for 2.5% of microbial population members in the studied estuaries no relatives were determined.

Current status of insecticide resistance in Q biotype Bemisia tabaci populations from Crete.

BACKGROUND: A major problem of crop protection in Crete, Greece, is the control of Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) with chemical insecticides owing to the rapid development of resistance. The aim of this study was to investigate the establishment of resistance and the underlying mechanisms to major insecticide classes with classical bioassays and known biochemical resistance markers. RESULTS: During a 2005-2007 survey, 53 Q biotype populations were collected. Application history records showed extensive use of neonicotinoids, organophosphates, carbamates and pyrethroids. High resistance levels were identified in the majority of populations (>80%) for imidacloprid (RF: 38-1958x) and alpha-cypermethrin (RF: 30-600x). Low resistance levels (RF < 12) were observed for pirimiphos-methyl. A strong correlation between resistance to imidacloprid and the number of applications with neonicotinoids was observed. Significant correlations were observed between COE and P450-dependent monoxygenase activity with resistance to alpha-cypermethrin and imidacloprid respectively. A propoxur-based AChE diagnostic test indicated that iAChE was widespread in most populations. Resistance levels for alpha-cypermethrin were increased when compared with a previous survey (2002-2003). Differentiation of LC(50) values between localities was observed for imidacloprid only. CONCLUSION: Bemisia tabaci resistance evolved differently in each of the three insecticides studied. Imidacloprid resistance seems less established and less persistent than alpha-cypermethrin resistance. The low resistance levels for pirimiphos-methyl suggest absence of cross-resistance with other organophosphates or carbamates used.