Genomic insight of sulfate reducing bacterial genus Desulfofaba reveals their metabolic versatility in biogeochemical cycling.

BACKGROUND: Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) drive the ocean sulfur and carbon cycling. They constitute a diverse phylogenetic and physiological group and are widely distributed in anoxic marine environments. From a physiological viewpoint, SRB's can be categorized as complete or incomplete oxidizers, meaning that they either oxidize their carbon substrate completely to CO2 or to a stoichiometric mix of CO2 and acetate. Members of Desulfofabaceae family are incomplete oxidizers, and within that family, Desulfofaba is the only genus with three isolates that are classified into three species. Previous physiological experiments revealed their capability of respiring oxygen. RESULTS: Here, we sequenced the genomes of three isolates in Desulfofaba genus and reported on a genomic comparison of the three species to reveal their metabolic potentials. Based on their genomic contents, they all could oxidize propionate to acetate and CO2. We confirmed their phylogenetic position as incomplete oxidizers based on dissimilatory sulfate reductase (DsrAB) phylogeny. We found the complete pathway for dissimilatory sulfate reduction, but also different key genes for nitrogen cycling, including nitrogen fixation, assimilatory nitrate/nitrite reduction, and hydroxylamine reduction to nitrous oxide. Their genomes also contain genes that allow them to cope with oxygen and oxidative stress. They have genes that encode for diverse central metabolisms for utilizing different substrates with the potential for more strains to be isolated in the future, yet their distribution is limited. CONCLUSIONS: Results based on marker gene search and curated metagenome assembled genomes search suggest a limited environmental distribution of this genus. Our results reveal a large metabolic versatility within the Desulfofaba genus which establishes their importance in biogeochemical cycling of carbon in their respective habitats, as well as in the support of the entire microbial community through releasing easily degraded organic matters.

Physiology and behaviour of marine Thioploca.

Among prokaryotes, the large vacuolated marine sulphur bacteria are unique in their ability to store, transport and metabolize significant quantities of sulphur, nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon compounds. In this study, unresolved questions of metabolism, storage management and behaviour were addressed in laboratory experiments with Thioploca species collected on the continental shelf off Chile. The Thioploca cells had an aerobic metabolism with a potential oxygen uptake rate of 1760 micromol O2 per dm(3) biovolume per h, equivalent to 4.4 nmol O2 per min per mg protein. When high ambient sulphide concentrations (approximately 200 microM) were present, a sulphide uptake of 6220+/-2230 micromol H2S per dm(3) per h, (mean+/-s.e.m., n=4) was measured. This sulphide uptake rate was six times higher than the oxidation rate of elemental sulphur by oxygen or nitrate, thus indicating a rapid sulphur accumulation by Thioploca. Thioploca reduce nitrate to ammonium and we found that dinitrogen was not produced, neither through denitrification nor through anammox activity. Unexpectedly, polyphosphate storage was not detectable by microautoradiography in physiological assays or by staining and microscopy. Carbon dioxide fixation increased when nitrate and nitrite were externally available and when organic carbon was added to incubations. Sulphide addition did not increase carbon dioxide fixation, indicating that Thioploca use excess of sulphide to rapidly accumulate sulphur rather than to accelerate growth. This is interpreted as an adaptation to infrequent high sulphate reduction rates in the seabed. The physiology and behaviour of Thioploca are summarized and the adaptations to an environment, dominated by infrequent oxygen availability and periods of high sulphide abundance, are discussed.

Sulfate-reducing bacteria in marine sediment (Aarhus Bay, Denmark): abundance and diversity related to geochemical zonation.

In order to better understand the main factors that influence the distribution of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB), their population size and their metabolic activity in high- and low-sulfate zones, we studied the SRB diversity in 3- to 5-m-deep sediment cores, which comprised the entire sulfate reduction zone and the upper methanogenic zone. By combining EMA (ethidium monoazide that can only enter damaged/dead cells and may also bind to free DNA) treatment with real-time PCR, we determined the distributions of total intact bacteria (16S rDNA genes) and intact SRB (dsrAB gene), their relative population sizes, and the proportion of dead cells or free DNA with depth. The abundance of SRB corresponded in average to 13% of the total bacterial community in the sulfate zone, 22% in the sulfate-methane transition zone and 8% in the methane zone. Compared with the total bacterial community, there were relatively less dead/damaged cells and free DNA present than among the SRB and this fraction did not change systematically with depth. By DGGE analysis, based on the amplification of the dsrA gene (400 bp), we found that the richness of SRB did not change with depth through the geochemical zones; but the clustering was related to the chemical zonation. A full-length clone library of the dsrAB gene (1900 bp) was constructed from four different depths (20, 110, 280 and 500 cm), and showed that the dsrAB genes in the near-surface sediment (20 cm) was mainly composed of sequences close to the Desulfobacteraceae, including marine complete and incomplete oxidizers such as Desulfosarcina, Desulfobacterium and Desulfococcus. The three other libraries were predominantly composed of Gram-positive SRB.