Autism-related dietary preferences mediate autism-gut microbiome associations.

There is increasing interest in the potential contribution of the gut microbiome to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, previous studies have been underpowered and have not been designed to address potential confounding factors in a comprehensive way. We performed a large autism stool metagenomics study (n = 247) based on participants from the Australian Autism Biobank and the Queensland Twin Adolescent Brain project. We found negligible direct associations between ASD diagnosis and the gut microbiome. Instead, our data support a model whereby ASD-related restricted interests are associated with less-diverse diet, and in turn reduced microbial taxonomic diversity and looser stool consistency. In contrast to ASD diagnosis, our dataset was well powered to detect microbiome associations with traits such as age, dietary intake, and stool consistency. Overall, microbiome differences in ASD may reflect dietary preferences that relate to diagnostic features, and we caution against claims that the microbiome has a driving role in ASD.

Chemotaxis shapes the microscale organization of the ocean's microbiome.

The capacity of planktonic marine microorganisms to actively seek out and exploit microscale chemical hotspots has been widely theorized to affect ocean-basin scale biogeochemistry1-3, but has never been examined comprehensively in situ among natural microbial communities. Here, using a field-based microfluidic platform to quantify the behavioural responses of marine bacteria and archaea, we observed significant levels of chemotaxis towards microscale hotspots of phytoplankton-derived dissolved organic matter (DOM) at a coastal field site across multiple deployments, spanning several months. Microscale metagenomics revealed that a wide diversity of marine prokaryotes, spanning 27 bacterial and 2 archaeal phyla, displayed chemotaxis towards microscale patches of DOM derived from ten globally distributed phytoplankton species. The distinct DOM composition of each phytoplankton species attracted phylogenetically and functionally discrete populations of bacteria and archaea, with 54% of chemotactic prokaryotes displaying highly specific responses to the DOM derived from only one or two phytoplankton species. Prokaryotes exhibiting chemotaxis towards phytoplankton-derived compounds were significantly enriched in the capacity to transport and metabolize specific phytoplankton-derived chemicals, and displayed enrichment in functions conducive to symbiotic relationships, including genes involved in the production of siderophores, B vitamins and growth-promoting hormones. Our findings demonstrate that the swimming behaviour of natural prokaryotic assemblages is governed by specific chemical cues, which dictate important biogeochemical transformation processes and the establishment of ecological interactions that structure the base of the marine food web.

CheckM2: a rapid, scalable and accurate tool for assessing microbial genome quality using machine learning.

Advances in sequencing technologies and bioinformatics tools have dramatically increased the recovery rate of microbial genomes from metagenomic data. Assessing the quality of metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) is a critical step before downstream analysis. Here, we present CheckM2, an improved method of predicting genome quality of MAGs using machine learning. Using synthetic and experimental data, we demonstrate that CheckM2 outperforms existing tools in both accuracy and computational speed. In addition, CheckM2's database can be rapidly updated with new high-quality reference genomes, including taxa represented only by a single genome. We also show that CheckM2 accurately predicts genome quality for MAGs from novel lineages, even for those with reduced genome size (for example, Patescibacteria and the DPANN superphylum). CheckM2 provides accurate genome quality predictions across bacterial and archaeal lineages, giving increased confidence when inferring biological conclusions from MAGs.

Comparative genomics reveals electron transfer and syntrophic mechanisms differentiating methanotrophic and methanogenic archaea.

The anaerobic oxidation of methane coupled to sulfate reduction is a microbially mediated process requiring a syntrophic partnership between anaerobic methanotrophic (ANME) archaea and sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB). Based on genome taxonomy, ANME lineages are polyphyletic within the phylum Halobacterota, none of which have been isolated in pure culture. Here, we reconstruct 28 ANME genomes from environmental metagenomes and flow sorted syntrophic consortia. Together with a reanalysis of previously published datasets, these genomes enable a comparative analysis of all marine ANME clades. We review the genomic features that separate ANME from their methanogenic relatives and identify what differentiates ANME clades. Large multiheme cytochromes and bioenergetic complexes predicted to be involved in novel electron bifurcation reactions are well distributed and conserved in the ANME archaea, while significant variations in the anabolic C1 pathways exists between clades. Our analysis raises the possibility that methylotrophic methanogenesis may have evolved from a methanotrophic ancestor.

Genome-centric view of carbon processing in thawing permafrost.

As global temperatures rise, large amounts of carbon sequestered in permafrost are becoming available for microbial degradation. Accurate prediction of carbon gas emissions from thawing permafrost is limited by our understanding of these microbial communities. Here we use metagenomic sequencing of 214 samples from a permafrost thaw gradient to recover 1,529 metagenome-assembled genomes, including many from phyla with poor genomic representation. These genomes reflect the diversity of this complex ecosystem, with genus-level representatives for more than sixty per cent of the community. Meta-omic analysis revealed key populations involved in the degradation of organic matter, including bacteria whose genomes encode a previously undescribed fungal pathway for xylose degradation. Microbial and geochemical data highlight lineages that correlate with the production of greenhouse gases and indicate novel syntrophic relationships. Our findings link changing biogeochemistry to specific microbial lineages involved in carbon processing, and provide key information for predicting the effects of climate change on permafrost systems.

Isolation and characterisation of novel Methanocorpusculum species indicates the genus is ancestrally host-associated.

BACKGROUND: With an increasing interest in the manipulation of methane produced from livestock cultivation, the microbiome of Australian marsupials provides a unique ecological and evolutionary comparison with 'low-methane' emitters. Previously, marsupial species were shown to be enriched for novel lineages of Methanocorpusculum, as well as Methanobrevibacter, Methanosphaera, and Methanomassiliicoccales. Despite sporadic reports of Methanocorpusculum from stool samples of various animal species, there remains little information on the impacts of these methanogens on their hosts. RESULTS: Here, we characterise novel host-associated species of Methanocorpusculum, to explore unique host-specific genetic factors and their associated metabolic potential. We performed comparative analyses on 176 Methanocorpusculum genomes comprising 130 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) recovered from 20 public animal metagenome datasets and 35 other publicly available Methanocorpusculum MAGs and isolate genomes of host-associated and environmental origin. Nine MAGs were also produced from faecal metagenomes of the common wombat (Vombatus ursinus) and mahogany glider (Petaurus gracilis), along with the cultivation of one axenic isolate from each respective animal; M. vombati (sp. nov.) and M. petauri (sp. nov.). CONCLUSIONS: Through our analyses, we substantially expand the available genetic information for this genus by describing the phenotypic and genetic characteristics of 23 host-associated species of Methanocorpusculum. These lineages display differential enrichment of genes associated with methanogenesis, amino acid biosynthesis, transport system proteins, phosphonate metabolism, and carbohydrate-active enzymes. These results provide insights into the differential genetic and functional adaptations of these novel host-associated species of Methanocorpusculum and suggest that this genus is ancestrally host-associated.

Pyrogenic Carbon Promotes Anaerobic Oxidation of Methane Coupled with Iron Reduction via the Redox-Cycling Mechanism.

Pyrogenic carbon (PC) can mediate electron transfer and thus catalyze biogeochemical processes to impact greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Here, we demonstrate that PC can contribute to mitigating GHG emissions by promoting the Fe(III)-dependent anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM). It was found that the amendment PCs in microcosms dominated by Methanoperedenaceae performing Fe(III)-dependent AOM simultaneously promoted the rate of AOM and Fe(III) reduction with a consistent ratio close to the theoretical stoichiometry of 1:8. Further correlation analysis showed that the AOM rate was linearly correlated with the electron exchange capacity, but not the conductivity, of added PC materials, indicating the redox-cycling electron transfer mechanism to promote the Fe(III)-dependent AOM. The mass content of the C═O moiety from differentially treated PCs was well correlated with the AOM rate, suggesting that surface redox-active quinone groups on PCs contribute to facilitating Fe(III)-dependent AOM. Further microbial analyses indicate that PC likely shuttles direct electron transfer from Methanoperedenaceae to Fe(III) reduction. This study provides new insight into the climate-cooling impact of PCs, and our evaluation indicates that the PC-facilitated Fe(III)-dependent AOM could have a significant contribution to suppressing methane emissions from the world's reservoirs.

Evidence for non-methanogenic metabolisms in globally distributed archaeal clades basal to the Methanomassiliicoccales.

Recent discoveries of mcr and mcr-like genes in genomes from diverse archaeal lineages suggest that methane metabolism is an ancient pathway with a complicated evolutionary history. One conventional view is that methanogenesis is an ancestral metabolism of the class Thermoplasmata. Through comparative genomic analysis of 12 Thermoplasmata metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) basal to the Methanomassiliicoccales, we show that these microorganisms do not encode the genes required for methanogenesis. Further analysis of 770 Ca. Thermoplasmatota genomes/MAGs found no evidence of mcrA homologues outside of the Methanomassiliicoccales. Together, these results suggest that methanogenesis was laterally acquired by an ancestor of the Methanomassiliicoccales. The 12 analysed MAGs include representatives from four orders basal to the Methanomassiliicoccales, including a high-quality MAG that likely represents a new order, Ca. Lunaplasma lacustris ord. nov. sp. nov. These MAGs are predicted to use diverse energy conservation pathways, including heterotrophy, sulfur and hydrogen metabolism, denitrification, and fermentation. Two lineages are widespread among anoxic, sedimentary environments, whereas Ca. Lunaplasma lacustris has thus far only been detected in alpine caves and subarctic lake sediments. These findings advance our understanding of the metabolic potential, ecology, and global distribution of the Thermoplasmata and provide insight into the evolutionary history of methanogenesis within the Ca. Thermoplasmatota.

Methane dynamics regulated by microbial community response to permafrost thaw.

Permafrost contains about 50% of the global soil carbon. It is thought that the thawing of permafrost can lead to a loss of soil carbon in the form of methane and carbon dioxide emissions. The magnitude of the resulting positive climate feedback of such greenhouse gas emissions is still unknown and may to a large extent depend on the poorly understood role of microbial community composition in regulating the metabolic processes that drive such ecosystem-scale greenhouse gas fluxes. Here we show that changes in vegetation and increasing methane emissions with permafrost thaw are associated with a switch from hydrogenotrophic to partly acetoclastic methanogenesis, resulting in a large shift in the δ(13)C signature (10-15‰) of emitted methane. We used a natural landscape gradient of permafrost thaw in northern Sweden as a model to investigate the role of microbial communities in regulating methane cycling, and to test whether a knowledge of community dynamics could improve predictions of carbon emissions under loss of permafrost. Abundance of the methanogen Candidatus 'Methanoflorens stordalenmirensis' is a key predictor of the shifts in methane isotopes, which in turn predicts the proportions of carbon emitted as methane and as carbon dioxide, an important factor for simulating the climate feedback associated with permafrost thaw in global models. By showing that the abundance of key microbial lineages can be used to predict atmospherically relevant patterns in methane isotopes and the proportion of carbon metabolized to methane during permafrost thaw, we establish a basis for scaling changing microbial communities to ecosystem isotope dynamics. Our findings indicate that microbial ecology may be important in ecosystem-scale responses to global change.

GraftM: a tool for scalable, phylogenetically informed classification of genes within metagenomes.

Large-scale metagenomic datasets enable the recovery of hundreds of population genomes from environmental samples. However, these genomes do not typically represent the full diversity of complex microbial communities. Gene-centric approaches can be used to gain a comprehensive view of diversity by examining each read independently, but traditional pairwise comparison approaches typically over-classify taxonomy and scale poorly with increasing metagenome and database sizes. Here we introduce GraftM, a tool that uses gene specific packages to rapidly identify gene families in metagenomic data using hidden Markov models (HMMs) or DIAMOND databases, and classifies these sequences using placement into pre-constructed gene trees. The speed and accuracy of GraftM was benchmarked with in silico and in vitro mock communities using taxonomic markers, and was found to have higher accuracy at the family level with a processing time 2.0-3.7× faster than currently available software. Exploration of a wetland metagenome using 16S rRNA- and methyl-coenzyme M reductase (McrA)-specific gpkgs revealed taxonomic and functional shifts across a depth gradient. Analysis of the NCBI nr database using the McrA gpkg allowed the detection of novel sequences belonging to phylum-level lineages. A growing collection of gpkgs is available online (https://github.com/geronimp/graftM_gpkgs), where curated packages can be uploaded and exchanged.

Biochar-Mediated Anaerobic Oxidation of Methane.

Biochar was recently identified as an effective soil amendment for CH4 capture. Corresponding mechanisms are currently recognized to be from physical properties of biochar, providing a favorable growth environment for aerobic methanotrophs which perform aerobic methane (CH4) oxidation. However, our study shows that the chemical reactivity of biochar can also stimulate anaerobic oxidation of CH4 (AOM) by anaerobic methanotrophic archaea (ANME) of ANME-2d, which proposes another plausible mechanism for CH4 mitigation by biochar amendment in anaerobic environments. It was found that, by adding biochar as the sole electron acceptor in an anaerobic environment, CH4 was biologically oxidized, with CO2 production of 106.3 ± 5.1 µmol g-1 biochar. In contrast, limited CO2 production was observed with chemically reduced biochar amendment. This biological nature of the process was confirmed by mcr gene transcript abundance as well as sustained dominance of ANME-2d in the microbial community during microbial incubations with active biochar amendment. Combined FTIR and XPS analyses demonstrated that the redox activity of biochar is related to its oxygen-based functional groups. On the basis of microbial community evolution as well as intermediate production during incubation, different pathways in terms of direct or indirect interactions between ANME-2d and biochar were proposed for biochar-mediated AOM.

Acetate Production from Anaerobic Oxidation of Methane via Intracellular Storage Compounds.

There is great interest in microbial conversion of methane, an abundant resource, into valuable liquid chemicals. While aerobic bioconversion of methane to liquid chemicals has been reported, studies of anaerobic methane bioconversion to liquid chemicals are rare. Here we show that a microbial culture dominated by Candidatus 'Methanoperedens nitroreducens', an anaerobic methanotrophic archaeon, anaerobically oxidizes methane to produce acetate, indirectly via reaction intermediate(s), when nitrate or nitrite is supplied as an electron acceptor under a rate-limiting condition. Isotopic labeling tests showed that acetate was produced from certain intracellular storage compounds that originated from methane. Fluorescence in situ hybridization and Nile red staining demonstrated that polyhydroxyalkanoate in M. nitroreducens was likely one of the intracellular storage compounds for acetate production, along with glycogen. Acetate is a common substrate for the production of more valuable chemicals. The microbial conversion discovered in this study potentially enables a new approach to the use of methane as a feedstock for the chemical market.

Anaerobic oxidation of methane coupled to nitrate reduction in a novel archaeal lineage.

Anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) is critical for controlling the flux of methane from anoxic environments. AOM coupled to iron, manganese and sulphate reduction have been demonstrated in consortia containing anaerobic methanotrophic (ANME) archaea. More recently it has been shown that the bacterium Candidatus 'Methylomirabilis oxyfera' can couple AOM to nitrite reduction through an intra-aerobic methane oxidation pathway. Bioreactors capable of AOM coupled to denitrification have resulted in the enrichment of 'M. oxyfera' and a novel ANME lineage, ANME-2d. However, as 'M. oxyfera' can independently couple AOM to denitrification, the role of ANME-2d in the process is unresolved. Here, a bioreactor fed with nitrate, ammonium and methane was dominated by a single ANME-2d population performing nitrate-driven AOM. Metagenomic, single-cell genomic and metatranscriptomic analyses combined with bioreactor performance and (13)C- and (15)N-labelling experiments show that ANME-2d is capable of independent AOM through reverse methanogenesis using nitrate as the terminal electron acceptor. Comparative analyses reveal that the genes for nitrate reduction were transferred laterally from a bacterial donor, suggesting selection for this novel process within ANME-2d. Nitrite produced by ANME-2d is reduced to dinitrogen gas through a syntrophic relationship with an anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing bacterium, effectively outcompeting 'M. oxyfera' in the system. We propose the name Candidatus 'Methanoperedens nitroreducens' for the ANME-2d population and the family Candidatus 'Methanoperedenaceae' for the ANME-2d lineage. We predict that 'M. nitroreducens' and other members of the 'Methanoperedenaceae' have an important role in linking the global carbon and nitrogen cycles in anoxic environments.

CheckM: assessing the quality of microbial genomes recovered from isolates, single cells, and metagenomes.

Large-scale recovery of genomes from isolates, single cells, and metagenomic data has been made possible by advances in computational methods and substantial reductions in sequencing costs. Although this increasing breadth of draft genomes is providing key information regarding the evolutionary and functional diversity of microbial life, it has become impractical to finish all available reference genomes. Making robust biological inferences from draft genomes requires accurate estimates of their completeness and contamination. Current methods for assessing genome quality are ad hoc and generally make use of a limited number of "marker" genes conserved across all bacterial or archaeal genomes. Here we introduce CheckM, an automated method for assessing the quality of a genome using a broader set of marker genes specific to the position of a genome within a reference genome tree and information about the collocation of these genes. We demonstrate the effectiveness of CheckM using synthetic data and a wide range of isolate-, single-cell-, and metagenome-derived genomes. CheckM is shown to provide accurate estimates of genome completeness and contamination and to outperform existing approaches. Using CheckM, we identify a diverse range of errors currently impacting publicly available isolate genomes and demonstrate that genomes obtained from single cells and metagenomic data vary substantially in quality. In order to facilitate the use of draft genomes, we propose an objective measure of genome quality that can be used to select genomes suitable for specific gene- and genome-centric analyses of microbial communities.

Where next for microbiome research?

The development of high-throughput sequencing technologies has transformed our capacity to investigate the composition and dynamics of the microbial communities that populate diverse habitats. Over the past decade, these advances have yielded an avalanche of metagenomic data. The current stage of "van Leeuwenhoek"-like cataloguing, as well as functional analyses, will likely accelerate as DNA and RNA sequencing, plus protein and metabolic profiling capacities and computational tools, continue to improve. However, it is time to consider: what's next for microbiome research? The short pieces included here briefly consider the challenges and opportunities awaiting microbiome research.

OrfM: a fast open reading frame predictor for metagenomic data.

UNLABELLED: Finding and translating stretches of DNA lacking stop codons is a task common in the analysis of sequence data. However, the computational tools for finding open reading frames are sufficiently slow that they are becoming a bottleneck as the volume of sequence data grows. This computational bottleneck is especially problematic in metagenomics when searching unassembled reads, or screening assembled contigs for genes of interest. Here, we present OrfM, a tool to rapidly identify open reading frames (ORFs) in sequence data by applying the Aho-Corasick algorithm to find regions uninterrupted by stop codons. Benchmarking revealed that OrfM finds identical ORFs to similar tools ('GetOrf' and 'Translate') but is four-five times faster. While OrfM is sequencing platform-agnostic, it is best suited to large, high quality datasets such as those produced by Illumina sequencers. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Source code and binaries are freely available for download at http://github.com/wwood/OrfM or through GNU Guix under the LGPL 3+ license. OrfM is implemented in C and supported on GNU/Linux and OSX. CONTACTS: b.woodcroft@uq.edu.au SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Comparison of microbial communities across sections of a corroding sewer pipe and the effects of wastewater flooding.

This study investigated the variation in microbially induced concrete corrosion communities at different circumferential locations of a real sewer pipe and the effects of a wastewater flooding event on the community. Three distinct microbial community groups were found in different corrosion samples. The physico-chemical properties of the corrosion layers and the microbial communities were distinct for the cross-sectional positions within the pipe, ie ceiling, wall and tidal zones. The microbial communities detected from the same positions in the pipe were consistent over the length of the pipe, as well as being consistent between the replicate pipes. The dominating ceiling communities were members of the bacterial orders Rhodospirillales, Acidithiobacillales, Actinomycetales, Xanthomonadales and Acidobacteriales. The wall communities were composed of members of the Xanthomonadales, Hydrogenophilales, Chromatiales and Sphingobacteriales. The tidal zones were dominated by eight bacterial and one archaeal order, with the common physiological trait of anaerobic metabolism. Sewage flooding within the sewer system did not change the tidal and wall communities, although the corrosion communities in ceiling samples were notably different, becoming more similar to the wall and tidal samples. This suggests that sewage flooding has a significant impact on the corrosion community in sewers.

Genome-centric resolution of microbial diversity, metabolism and interactions in anaerobic digestion.

Our understanding of the complex interconnected processes performed by microbial communities is hindered by our inability to culture the vast majority of microorganisms. Metagenomics provides a way to bypass this cultivation bottleneck and recent advances in this field now allow us to recover a growing number of genomes representing previously uncultured populations from increasingly complex environments. In this study, a temporal genome-centric metagenomic analysis was performed of lab-scale anaerobic digesters that host complex microbial communities fulfilling a series of interlinked metabolic processes to enable the conversion of cellulose to methane. In total, 101 population genomes that were moderate to near-complete were recovered based primarily on differential coverage binning. These populations span 19 phyla, represent mostly novel species and expand the genomic coverage of several rare phyla. Classification into functional guilds based on their metabolic potential revealed metabolic networks with a high level of functional redundancy as well as niche specialization, and allowed us to identify potential roles such as hydrolytic specialists for several rare, uncultured populations. Genome-centric analyses of complex microbial communities across diverse environments provide the key to understanding the phylogenetic and metabolic diversity of these interactive communities.