Novel viral genomes identified from six metagenomes reveal wide distribution of archaeal viruses and high viral diversity in terrestrial hot springs.

Limited by culture-dependent methods the number of viruses identified from thermophilic Archaea and Bacteria is still very small. In this study we retrieved viral sequences from six hot spring metagenomes isolated worldwide, revealing a wide distribution of four archaeal viral families, Ampullaviridae, Bicaudaviridae, Lipothrixviridae and Rudiviridae. Importantly, we identified 10 complete or near complete viral genomes allowing, for the first time, an assessment of genome conservation and evolution of the Ampullaviridae family as well as Sulfolobus Monocaudavirus 1 (SMV1)-related viruses. Among the novel genomes, one belongs to a putative thermophilic virus infecting the bacterium Hydrogenobaculum, for which no virus has been reported in the literature. Moreover, a high viral diversity was observed in the metagenomes, especially among the Lipothrixviridae, as indicated by the large number of unique contigs and the lack of a completely assembled genome for this family. This is further supported by the large number of novel genes in the complete and partial genomes showing no sequence similarities to public databases. CRISPR analysis revealed hundreds of novel CRISPR loci and thousands of novel CRISPR spacers from each metagenome, reinforcing the notion of high viral diversity in the thermal environment.

Comparative Metagenomics of Eight Geographically Remote Terrestrial Hot Springs.

Hot springs are natural habitats for thermophilic Archaea and Bacteria. In this paper, we present the metagenomic analysis of eight globally distributed terrestrial hot springs from China, Iceland, Italy, Russia, and the USA with a temperature range between 61 and 92 (∘)C and pH between 1.8 and 7. A comparison of the biodiversity and community composition generally showed a decrease in biodiversity with increasing temperature and decreasing pH. Another important factor shaping microbial diversity of the studied sites was the abundance of organic substrates. Several species of the Crenarchaeal order Thermoprotei were detected, whereas no single bacterial species was found in all samples, suggesting a better adaptation of certain archaeal species to different thermophilic environments. Two hot springs show high abundance of Acidithiobacillus, supporting the idea of a true thermophilic Acidithiobacillus species that can thrive in hyperthermophilic environments. Depending on the sample, up to 58 % of sequencing reads could not be assigned to a known phylum, reinforcing the fact that a large number of microorganisms in nature, including those thriving in hot environments remain to be isolated and characterized.

Discovery and Characterization of a Novel Thermostable ß-Amino Acid Transaminase from a Meiothermus Strain Isolated in an Icelandic Hot Spring.

A Meiothermus strain capable of using ß-phenylalanine for growth is isolated by culture enrichment of samples collected in hot environments and the genome is sequenced showing the presence of 22 putative transaminase (TA) sequences. On the basis of phylogenetic and sequence analysis, a TA termed Ms-TA2 is selected for further studies. The enzyme is successfully produced in Escherichia coli Rosetta(DE3) cells, with 70 mg of pure protein obtained from 1 L culture after purification by affinity chromatography. Ms-TA2 shows high activity toward (S)-ß-phenylalanine and other (S)-ß-amino acids, as well as a preference for α-ketoglutarate and aromatic aldehydes as amino acceptors. Moreover, Ms-TA2 is shown to be a thermostable enzyme by maintaining about 60% of the starting activity after 3 h incubation at 50 °C and showing a melting temperature of about 73 °C. Finally, a homology-based structural model of Ms-TA2 is built and key active site interactions for substrate and cofactor binding are analyzed.