Publications by authors named "Qilong Qin"

Article Synopsis
  • Numerous psychrophiles are found in cold environments, and while some have been studied, many microbial lineages with unique cold-adaptation strategies remain unexplored.
  • This study focuses on Poseidonibacter antarcticus SM1702, a bacterium from Antarctica, discovering that it increases proteins for energy production and amino acid transport in response to cold temperatures.
  • Findings suggest that low temperatures hinder membrane protein function, leading the bacterium to enhance ATP synthesis and transporter expression to cope with cold stress, offering insights into how psychrophiles adapt to their harsh environments.
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Microbial extracellular enzymatic activities (EEAs) produced by microbes to degrade biopolymers are the 'gatekeeper' of carbon cycle in the marine ecosystem. It is usually assumed that these extracellular enzymes are actively secreted by microbes. However, biopolymer-degrading enzymes also exist in the intracellular space.

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Arsenic is a toxic element widely distributed in the Earth's crust and ranked as a class I human carcinogen. Microbial metabolism makes significant contributions to arsenic detoxification, migration and transformation. Nowadays, research on arsenic is primarily in areas affected by arsenic pollution associated with human health activities.

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  • Phthalate esters (PAEs) are toxic chemicals commonly used as plasticizers, with Diethyl phthalate (DEP) and Dimethyl phthalate (DMP) identified as priority pollutants by many countries.
  • HylD1, a family IV esterase, is an effective enzyme that can degrade DEP and DMP, and its crystal structures have been solved to identify how it binds substrates and operates.
  • This research enhances understanding of PAE hydrolysis and could guide the design of more efficient enzymes for industrial applications in the future.
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Isolated from intertidal sediment of the Yellow Sea, China, Bremerella sp. P1 putatively represents a novel species within the genus Bremerella of the family Pirellulaceae in the phylum Planctomycetota. The complete genome of strain P1 comprises a single circular chromosome with a size of 6,955,728 bp and a GC content of 55.

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Microbes are thought to be distributed and circulated around the world, but the connection between marine and terrestrial microbiomes remains largely unknown. We use Plantibacter, a representative genus associated with plants, as our research model to investigate the global distribution and adaptation of plant-related bacteria in plant-free environments, particularly in the remote Southern Ocean and the deep Atlantic Ocean. The marine isolates and their plant-associated relatives shared over 98% whole-genome average nucleotide identity (ANI), indicating recent divergence and ongoing speciation from plant-related niches to marine environments.

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Background: The deep sea represents the largest marine ecosystem, driving global-scale biogeochemical cycles. Microorganisms are the most abundant biological entities and play a vital role in the cycling of organic matter in such ecosystems. The primary food source for abyssal biota is the sedimentation of particulate organic polymers.

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Marine bacteria play important roles in the degradation and cycling of algal polysaccharides. However, the dynamics of epiphytic bacterial communities and their roles in algal polysaccharide degradation during kelp decay are still unclear. Here, we performed metagenomic analyses to investigate the identities and predicted metabolic abilities of epiphytic bacterial communities during the early and late decay stages of the kelp .

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Catabolism of algal polysaccharides by marine bacteria is a significant process of marine carbon cycling. β1,3/1,4Mixed-linkage xylan (MLX) is a class of xylan in the ocean, widely present in the cell walls of red algae. However, the catabolic mechanism of MLX by marine bacteria remains elusive.

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Article Synopsis
  • * This study identifies key microbes, mainly from the Alteromonas, Psychrosphaera, and Colwellia genera, that actively degrade alginate via alginate lyase genes, while others rely on simpler sugars for growth.
  • * Co-culturing experiments revealed that alginate-degrading microbes can support the growth of non-degrading strains without hindering the overall degradation process, highlighting the complex interactions in microbial communities during alginate processing.
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Xylans are polysaccharides composed of xylose and include β1,4-xylan, β1,3-xylan, and β1,3/1,4-mixed-linkage xylan (MLX). MLX is widely present in marine red algae and constitutes a significant organic carbon in the ocean. Xylanases are hydrolase enzymes that play an important role in xylan degradation.

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  • * The genome of strain C6131 has been sequenced, revealing a circular chromosome of about 4.2 million base pairs and containing genes for two major chitin catabolic pathways: hydrolytic and oxidative.
  • * Understanding the genetic makeup of strain C6131 enhances our knowledge of chitin degradation processes, which are important for carbon and nitrogen cycling in the ocean.
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Alginate lyases play a vital role in the degradation of alginate, an important marine carbon source. Alginate is a complex macromolecular substrate, and the synergy of alginate lyases is important for the alginate utilization by microbes and the application of alginate lyases in biotechnology. Although many studies have focused on the synergy between different alginate lyases, the synergy between two alginate lyase domains of one alginate lyase has not been reported.

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Oxidative degradation of chitin, initiated by lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs), contributes to microbial bioconversion of crystalline chitin, the second most abundant biopolymer in nature. However, our knowledge of oxidative chitin utilization pathways, beyond LPMOs, is very limited. Here, we describe a complete pathway for oxidative chitin degradation and its regulation in a marine bacterium, Pseudoalteromonas prydzensis.

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Diaminopimelic acid (DAP) is a unique component of the cell wall of Gram-negative bacteria. It is also an important component of organic matter and is widely utilized by microbes in the world's oceans. However, neither DAP concentrations nor marine DAP-utilizing microbes have been investigated.

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Hadal ocean biosphere, that is, the deepest part of the world's oceans, harbors a unique microbial community, suggesting a potential uncovered co-occurring virioplankton assemblage. Herein, we reveal the unique virioplankton assemblages of the Challenger Deep, comprising 95,813 non-redundant viral contigs from the surface to the hadal zone. Almost all of the dominant viral contigs in the hadal zone were unclassified, potentially related to Alteromonadales and Oceanospirillales.

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Members of the marine Roseobacter group are ubiquitous in global oceans, but their cold-adaptive strategies have barely been studied. Here, as represented by Loktanella salsilacus strains enriched in polar regions, we firstly characterized the metabolic features of a cold-adapted Roseobacter by multi-omics, enzyme activities, and carbon utilization procedures. Unlike in most cold-adapted microorganisms, the TCA cycle is enhanced by accumulating more enzyme molecules, whereas genes for thiosulfate oxidation, sulfate reduction, nitrate reduction, and urea metabolism are all expressed at lower abundance when L.

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Chitooligosaccharides (COSs) have been widely used in agriculture, medicine, cosmetics, and foods, which are commonly prepared from chitin with chitinases. So far, while most COSs are prepared from colloidal chitin, chitinases used in preparing COSs directly from natural crystalline chitin are less reported. Here, we characterize three chitinases, which were identified from the marine bacterium DSM 14401, with an ability to degrade crystalline chitin into (GlcNAc) ('-diacetylchitobiose).

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Article Synopsis
  • The Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean, has extreme conditions like high pressure, cold temperatures, and no light, which makes it challenging for life.
  • Researchers studied the complete genome of Marinomonas profundi M1K-6, a microorganism found in the trench, revealing its adaptations for surviving these harsh conditions, including genes for cold tolerance and ion transport.
  • The findings enhance our understanding of how Marinomonas spp. thrive in deep-sea environments that are low in oxygen and nutrients, highlighting their unique survival strategies.
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  • The same bacterial types (OTUs) are found in both the Arctic and Antarctic oceans, supporting the idea that species are widely distributed.
  • Despite this similarity, the study reveals that the actual genetic makeup (genomes) of these bacteria is not identical across the poles, suggesting that distribution at the genomic level is more complex.
  • The research indicates that geographical isolation and the divergence time of bacteria significantly influence the genetic differences observed, providing insights into how environmental factors affect marine microbial diversity.
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Background: Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) is the dominant volatile organic sulfur in global oceans. The predominant source of oceanic DMS is the cleavage of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), which can be produced by marine bacteria and phytoplankton. Polar oceans, which represent about one fifth of Earth's surface, contribute significantly to the global oceanic DMS sea-air flux.

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Pelagovum pacificum SM1903, belonging to a novel genus of the family Rhodobacteraceae, was isolated from the surface seawater of the Mariana Trench. Here, we report the first complete genome sequence of the novel genus Pelagovum. The genome of strain SM1903 consists of a circular chromosome of 4,040,866 bp and two plasmids of 41,363 bp and 9705 bp, respectively.

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A novel Gram-negative, rod-shaped, aerobic, oxidase-positive and catalase-negative bacterium, designated strain SM1970, was isolated from a seawater sample collected from the Mariana Trench. Strain SM1970 grew at 15-37 C and with 1-5% (w/v) NaCl. It hydrolyzed colloidal chitin, agar and casein but did not reduce nitrate to nitrite.

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Two Gram-stain-negative bacterial strains, SM1969 and SM1979, were isolated from coastal surface seawater of Qingdao, China. They were taxonomically characterized by the phylogenetic, genomic, chemotaxonomic and phenotypic analyses. The two strains shared 97.

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