Coupled anaerobic methane oxidation and metal reduction in soil under elevated CO2.

Continued current emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2 ) and methane (CH4 ) by human activities will increase global atmospheric CO2 and CH4 concentrations and surface temperature significantly. Fields of paddy rice, the most important form of anthropogenic wetlands, account for about 9% of anthropogenic sources of CH4 . Elevated atmospheric CO2 may enhance CH4 production in rice paddies, potentially reinforcing the increase in atmospheric CH4 . However, what is not known is whether and how elevated CO2 influences CH4 consumption under anoxic soil conditions in rice paddies, as the net emission of CH4 is a balance of methanogenesis and methanotrophy. In this study, we used a long-term free-air CO2 enrichment experiment to examine the impact of elevated CO2 on the transformation of CH4 in a paddy rice agroecosystem. We demonstrate that elevated CO2 substantially increased anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) coupled to manganese and/or iron oxides reduction in the calcareous paddy soil. We further show that elevated CO2 may stimulate the growth and metabolism of Candidatus Methanoperedens nitroreducens, which is actively involved in catalyzing AOM when coupled to metal reduction, mainly through enhancing the availability of soil CH4 . These findings suggest that a thorough evaluation of climate-carbon cycle feedbacks may need to consider the coupling of methane and metal cycles in natural and agricultural wetlands under future climate change scenarios.

Haloimpatiens lingqiaonensis gen. nov., sp. nov., an anaerobic bacterium isolated from paper-mill wastewater.

An anaerobic bacterium, strain ZC-CMC3T, was isolated from a wastewater sample in Zhejiang, China. Cells were Gram-stain-positive, peritrichous, non-spore-forming, rod-shaped (0.6-1.2 × 2.9-5.1 µm) and catalase- and oxidase-negative. Strain ZC-CMC3T was able to grow at 25-48 °C (optimum 43 °C) and pH 5.5-8.0 (optimum pH 7.0). The NaCl concentration range for growth was 0-3 % (w/v) (optimum 0 %). The major polar lipids of the isolate were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, several phospholipids and glycolipids. Main fermentation products from PYG medium were formate, acetate, lactate and ethanol. Substrates which could be utilized were peptone, tryptone, yeast extract and beef extract. No respiratory quinone was detected. The main fatty acids were C14 : 0, C16 : 0, C16 : 1cis 7 and C16 : 1cis 9. The DNA G+C content was 30.0 mol%. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that the isolate belonged to the family Clostridiaceae. Phylogenetically, the most closely related species were Oceanirhabdus sediminicola NH-JN4T (92.8 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity) and Clostridium tepidiprofundi SG 508T (92.6 %). On the basis of phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic and phenotypic characteristics, strain ZC-CMC3T represents a novel species of a new genus in the family Clostridiaceae, for which the name Haloimpatiens lingqiaonensis gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of the type species is ZC-CMC3T ( = KCTC 15321T = JCM 19210T = CCTCC AB 2013104T).

Immunogenicity and protective efficacy of the HC009 mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2.

With the rapid global spread of COVID-19 and the continuous emergence of variants, there is an urgent need to develop safe and effective vaccines. Here, we developed a novel mRNA vaccine, HC009, based on new formulation by the QTsome delivery platform. Immunogenicity results showed that the prime-boost immunization strategy with HC009 was able to induce robust and durable humoral immunity, as well as Th1-biased cellular responses in rodents or non-human primates (NHPs). After further challenge with live SARS-CoV-2 virus, HC009 provided adequate protection against virus infection in hACE2 transgenic mice. Therefore, HC009 could provide significant immune protection against SARS-CoV-2.

Large losses of ammonium-nitrogen from a rice ecosystem under elevated CO2.

Inputs of nitrogen into terrestrial ecosystems, mainly via the use of ammonium-based fertilizers in agroecosystems, are enormous, but the fate of this nitrogen under elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is not well understood. We have taken advantage of a 15-year free-air CO2 enrichment study to investigate the influence of elevated CO2 on the transformation of ammonium-nitrogen in a rice ecosystem in which ammonium is usually assumed to be stable under anaerobic conditions. We demonstrate that elevated CO2 causes substantial losses of ammonium-nitrogen that result from anaerobic oxidation of ammonium coupled to reduction of iron. We identify a new autotrophic member of the bacterial order Burkholderiales that may use soil CO2 as a carbon source to couple anaerobic ammonium oxidation and iron reduction. These findings offer insight into the coupled cycles of nitrogen and iron in terrestrial ecosystems and raise questions about the loss of ammonium-nitrogen from arable soils under future climate-change scenarios.

Warming enhances old organic carbon decomposition through altering functional microbial communities.

Soil organic matter (SOM) stocks contain nearly three times as much carbon (C) as the atmosphere and changes in soil C stocks may have a major impact on future atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and climate. Over the past two decades, much research has been devoted to examining the influence of warming on SOM decomposition in topsoil. Most SOM, however, is old and stored in subsoil. The fate of subsoil SOM under future warming remains highly uncertain. Here, by combining a long-term field warming experiment and a meta-analysis study, we showed that warming significantly increased SOM decomposition in subsoil. We also showed that a decade of warming promoted decomposition of subsoil SOM with turnover times of decades to millennia in a tall grass prairie and this effect was largely associated with shifts in the functional gene structure of microbial communities. By coupling stable isotope probing with metagenomics, we found that microbial communities in warmed soils possessed a higher relative abundance of key functional genes involved in the degradation of organic materials with varying recalcitrance than those in control soils. These findings suggest warming may considerably alter the stability of the vast pool of old SOM in subsoil, contributing to the long-term positive feedback between the C cycle and climate.