RESUMO
Hypoliths (cryptic microbial assemblages that develop on the undersides of translucent rocks) are significant contributors to regional C and N budgets in both hot and cold deserts. Previous studies in the Dry Valleys of Eastern Antarctica have reported three morphologically distinct hypolithic community types: cyanobacteria dominated (type I), fungus dominated (type II) and moss dominated (type III). Here we present terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses to elucidate the bacterial community structure in hypolithons and the surrounding soils. We show clear and robust distinction in bacterial composition between bulk surface soils and hypolithons. Moreover, the bacterial assemblages were similar in types II and III hypolithons and clearly distinct from those found in type I. Through 16S rRNA gene 454 pyrosequencing, we show that Proteobacteria dominated all three types of hypolithic communities. As expected, Cyanobacteria were more abundant in type I hypolithons, whereas Actinobacteria were relatively more abundant in types II and III hypolithons, and were the dominant group in soils. Using a probabilistic dissimilarity metric and random sampling, we demonstrate that deterministic processes are more important in shaping the structure of the bacterial community found in types II and III hypolithons. Most notably, the data presented in this study suggest that hypolithic bacterial communities establish via a successional model, with the type I hypolithons acting as the basal development state.
Assuntos
Fenômenos Fisiológicos Bacterianos , Biodiversidade , Microbiologia do Solo , Regiões Antárticas , Bactérias/genética , Modelos Biológicos , Polimorfismo de Fragmento de Restrição , RNA Ribossômico 16S/genética , Fatores de TempoRESUMO
A temperate phage, Psymv2, was isolated from an Antarctic soil bacterium, Psychrobacter sp. MV2. The morphology of Psymv2 was typical of the Siphoviridae, with an isometric head and non-contractile tail. The Psymv2 genome was found to be 35,725 bp in length, had a G + C content of 44.5 %, with 49 protein-coding genes and one tRNA gene predicted. Integration of Psymv2 occurred at an ssrA gene, with the last 27 bases of this gene directly repeated at the prophage ends. The genome was organised in a modular fashion: integration, regulation, packaging, head assembly, tail assembly, host specificity and lysis. While the genome sequence had little similarity on a nucleotide level to previously reported phage sequences, the genome architecture resembled that of Siphoviridae of low G + C Gram-positive bacteria. The closest relatives to Psymv2 were uncharacterized putative prophages within the P. arcticus 273-4 and Acinetobacter baumannii 6013113 genomes. Global alignment of the Psymv2 genome and these prophages revealed significant conservation of the structural modules despite the large spatial divergence of their hosts. A number of unique ORFs were identified in the Psymv2 genome that may contribute to phage and lysogen fitness.
Assuntos
Bacteriófagos/genética , Genes Virais , Genoma Viral , Fases de Leitura Aberta , Psychrobacter/virologia , Análise de Sequência de DNA , Regiões Antárticas , Sequência de Bases , Dados de Sequência Molecular , Psychrobacter/genética , Microbiologia do SoloRESUMO
All strains of the moderately thermophilic, acidophilic, sulphur-oxidizing bacterium Acidithiobacillus caldus that have been tested contain a set of chromosomal arsenic resistance genes. Highly arsenic-resistant strains isolated from commercial arsenopyrite bio-oxidation tanks contain additional transposon-located (TnAtcArs) arsenic resistance genes. The chromosomal At. caldus ars genes were cloned and found to consist of arsR and arsC genes transcribed in one direction, and arsB in the opposite direction. The arsRC genes were co-transcribed with ORF1, and arsB with ORF5 in both At. caldus and Escherichia coli, although deletion of ORFs 1 and 5 did not appear to affect resistance to arsenate or arsenite in E. coli. ORFs 1 and 5 have not previously been reported as part of the ars operons, and had high amino acid identity to hypothetical proteins from Polaromonas naphthalenivorus (76%) and Legionella pneumophila (60%), respectively. Reporter-gene studies showed that the arsenic operon of transposon origin (TnAtcArs) was expressed at a higher level, and was less tightly regulated in E. coli than were the At. caldus ars genes of chromosomal origin. Plasmid pSa-mediated conjugal transfer of TnAtcArs from E. coli to At. caldus strains lacking the transposon was successful, and resulted in greatly increased levels of resistance to arsenite.
Assuntos
Acidithiobacillus/genética , Antibacterianos/farmacologia , Arseniatos/farmacologia , Arsenitos/farmacologia , Elementos de DNA Transponíveis/genética , Farmacorresistência Bacteriana/genética , Acidithiobacillus/efeitos dos fármacos , Cromossomos Bacterianos/genética , Clonagem Molecular , Comamonadaceae/genética , Conjugação Genética , DNA Bacteriano/química , DNA Bacteriano/genética , Escherichia coli/efeitos dos fármacos , Escherichia coli/genética , Deleção de Genes , Regulação Bacteriana da Expressão Gênica , Transferência Genética Horizontal , Genes Bacterianos , Legionella pneumophila/genética , Dados de Sequência Molecular , Fases de Leitura Aberta , Óperon , Fatores R/genética , Análise de Sequência de DNA , Homologia de Sequência de Aminoácidos , Transcrição GênicaRESUMO
Two sets of arsenic resistance genes were isolated from the highly arsenic-resistant Leptospirillum ferriphilum Fairview strain. One set is located on a transposon, TnLfArs, and is related to the previously identified TnAtcArs from Acidithiobacillus caldus isolated from the same arsenopyrite biooxidation tank as L. ferriphilum. TnLfArs conferred resistance to arsenite and arsenate and was transpositionally active in Escherichia coli. TnLfArs and TnAtcArs were sufficiently different for them not to have been transferred from one type of bacterium to the other in the biooxidation tank. The second set of arsenic resistance genes conferred very low levels of resistance in E. coli and appeared to be poorly expressed in both L. ferriphilum and E. coli.
Assuntos
Arseniatos/farmacologia , Bactérias/efeitos dos fármacos , Reatores Biológicos/microbiologia , Elementos de DNA Transponíveis/genética , Farmacorresistência Bacteriana/genética , Mineração/métodos , Arseniatos/metabolismo , Arsenicais , Bactérias/genética , Bactérias/isolamento & purificação , Bactérias/metabolismo , Proteínas de Bactérias/genética , Escherichia coli/efeitos dos fármacos , Escherichia coli/genética , Escherichia coli/metabolismo , Regulação Bacteriana da Expressão Gênica , Ouro , Compostos de Ferro , Minerais , Dados de Sequência Molecular , Oxirredução , Análise de Sequência de DNA , SulfetosRESUMO
A transposon, TnAtcArs, that carries a set of arsenic-resistance genes was isolated from a strain of the moderately thermophilic, sulfur-oxidizing, biomining bacterium Acidithiobacillus caldus. This strain originated from a commercial plant used for the bio-oxidation of gold-bearing arsenopyrite concentrates. Continuous selection for arsenic resistance over many years had made the bacterium resistant to high concentrations of arsenic. Sequence analysis indicated that TnAtcArs is 12 444 bp in length and has 40 bp terminal inverted repeat sequences and divergently transcribed resolvase and transposase genes that are related to the Tn21-transposon subfamily. A series of genes consisting of arsR, two tandem copies of arsA and arsD, two ORFs (7 and 8) and arsB is situated between the resolvase and transposase genes. Although some commercial strains of At. caldus contained the arsDA duplication, when transformed into Escherichia coli, the arsDA duplication was unstable and was frequently lost during cultivation or if a plasmid containing TnAtcArs was conjugated into a recipient strain. TnAtcArs conferred resistance to arsenite and arsenate upon E. coli cells. Deletion of one copy of arsDA had no noticeable effect on resistance to arsenite or arsenate in E. coli. ORFs 7 and 8 had clear sequence similarity to an NADH oxidase and a CBS-domain-containing protein, respectively, but their deletion did not affect resistance to arsenite or arsenate in E. coli. TnAtcArs was actively transposed in E. coli, but no increase in transposition frequency in the presence of arsenic was detected. Northern hybridization and reporter gene studies indicated that although ArsR regulated the 10 kb operon containing the arsenic-resistance genes in response to arsenic, ArsR had no effect on the regulation of genes associated with transposition activity.