Complete genome sequence of type strain DSM33.

Here, we present the complete genome sequence of type strain DSM33, a model organism for microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation. This genome consists of a single 3.3-Mb chromosome and is an improvement upon draft genome sequences currently available in public databases.

The relationship between water quality and the microbial virulome and resistome in urban streams in Brazil.

Urban streams that receive untreated domestic and hospital waste can transmit infectious diseases and spread drug residues, including antimicrobials, which can then increase the selection of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. Here, water samples were collected from three different urban streams in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, to relate their range of Water Quality Indices (WQIs) to the diversity and composition of aquatic microbial taxa, virulence genes (virulome), and antimicrobial resistance determinants (resistome), all assessed using untargeted metagenome sequencing. There was a predominance of phyla Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes in all samples, and Pseudomonas was the most abundant detected genus.

Bioactive exometabolites drive maintenance competition in simple bacterial communities.

Unlabelled: During prolonged resource limitation, bacterial cells can persist in metabolically active states of non-growth. These maintenance periods, such as those experienced in stationary phase, can include upregulation of secondary metabolism and release of exometabolites into the local environment. As resource limitation is common in many environmental microbial habitats, we hypothesized that neighboring bacterial populations employ exometabolites to compete or cooperate during maintenance and that these exometabolite-facilitated interactions can drive community outcomes.

A coevolution experiment between and reveals parallel mutations that reduce antibiotic susceptibility.

One interference mechanism of bacterial competition is the production of antibiotics. Bacteria exposed to antibiotics can resist antibiotic inhibition through intrinsic or acquired mechanisms. Here, we performed a coevolution experiment to understand the long-term consequences of antibiotic production and antibiotic susceptibility for two environmental bacterial strains.

Exometabolite Dynamics over Stationary Phase Reveal Strain-Specific Responses.

Microbial exponential growth is expected to occur infrequently in environments that have long periods of nutrient starvation punctuated by short periods of high nutrient flux. These conditions likely impose nongrowth states for microbes. However, nongrowth states are uncharacterized for the majority of environmental bacteria, especially in regard to exometabolite production.

A Synthetic Community System for Probing Microbial Interactions Driven by Exometabolites.

Though most microorganisms live within a community, we have modest knowledge about microbial interactions and their implications for community properties and ecosystem functions. To advance understanding of microbial interactions, we describe a straightforward synthetic community system that can be used to interrogate exometabolite interactions among microorganisms. The filter plate system (also known as the Transwell system) physically separates microbial populations, but allows for chemical interactions via a shared medium reservoir.