DPANN archaea are an enigmatic superphylum that are difficult to isolate and culture in the laboratory due to their specific culture conditions and apparent ectosymbiotic lifestyle. Here, we successfully isolated and cultivated a coculture system of a novel Nanobdellota archaeon YN1 and its host Sulfurisphaera ohwakuensis YN1HA. We characterized the coculture system by complementary methods, including metagenomics and metabolic pathway analysis, fluorescence microscopy, and high-resolution electron cryo-tomography (cryoET).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcidimicrobiia are widely distributed in nature and suggested to be autotrophic via the Calvin-Benson-Bassham (CBB) cycle. However, direct evidence of chemolithoautotrophy in Acidimicrobiia is lacking. Here, we report a chemolithoautotrophic enrichment from a saline lake, and the subsequent isolation and characterization of a chemolithoautotroph, Salinilacustristhrix flava EGI L10123T, which belongs to a new Acidimicrobiia family.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFβ-N-Acetylgalactosamine-containing glycans play essential roles in several biological processes, including cell adhesion, signal transduction, and immune responses. β-N-Acetylgalactosaminidases hydrolyze β-N-acetylgalactosamine linkages of various glycoconjugates. However, their biological significance remains ambiguous, primarily because only one type of enzyme, exo-β-N-acetylgalactosaminidases that specifically act on β-N-acetylgalactosamine residues, has been documented to date.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMany organisms that utilize the Calvin-Benson-Bassham (CBB) cycle for autotrophic growth harbor metabolic pathways to remove and/or salvage 2-phosphoglycolate, the product of the oxygenase activity of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco). It has been presumed that the occurrence of 2-phosphoglycolate salvage is linked to the CBB cycle, and in particular, the C2 pathway to the CBB cycle and oxygenic photosynthesis. Here, we examined 2-phosphoglycolate salvage in the hyperthermophilic archaeon , an obligate anaerobe that harbors a Rubisco that functions in the pentose bisphosphate pathway.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicrofluidic capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CE-MS) is a rapid and highly accurate method to determine isotopomer patterns in isotopically labeled compounds. Here, we developed a novel method for tracer-based metabolomics using CE-MS for underivatized proteinogenic amino acids. The method consisting of a ZipChip CE system and a high-resolution Orbitrap Fusion Tribrid mass spectrometer allows us to obtain highly accurate data from 1 μl of 100 nmol/l amino acids comparable to a mere 1 [Formula: see text] 10-10 prokaryotic cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHadal trenches host abundant and diversified benthic prokaryotic assemblages, but information on benthic fungi is still extremely limited. We investigated the fungal abundance and diversity in the Challenger Deep (at ca. 11,000 m depth) and the slope of the Mariana Trench in comparison with three sites of the adjacent abyssal plain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMetatranscriptome sequencing expanded the known diversity of the bacterial RNA virome, suggesting that additional riboviruses infecting bacterial hosts remain to be discovered. Here we employed double-stranded RNA sequencing to recover complete genome sequences of two ribovirus groups from acidic hot springs in Japan. One group, denoted hot spring riboviruses (HsRV), consists of viruses with distinct RNA-directed RNA polymerases (RdRPs) that seem to be intermediates between typical ribovirus RdRPs and viral reverse transcriptases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe genus Nitratiruptor represents one of the most numerically abundant chemolithoautotrophic Campylobacterota populations in the mixing zones of habitats between hydrothermal fluids and ambient seawater in deep-sea hydrothermal environments. We isolated and characterized four novel temperate phages (NrS-2, NrS-3, NrS-4, and NrS-5) having a siphoviral morphology, infecting Nitratiruptor strains from the Hatoma Knoll hydrothermal field in the southern-Okinawa Trough, Japan, and conducted comparative genomic analyses among Nitratiruptor strains and their phages. The Nitratiruptor temperate phages shared many potential core genes (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe elucidation of the molecular basis of virus-host coevolutionary interactions is boosted with state-of-the-art sequencing technologies. However, the sequence-only information is often insufficient to output a conclusive argument without biochemical characterizations. We proposed a 1-day and one-pot approach to confirm the exact function of putative restriction-modification (R-M) genes that presumably mediate microbial coevolution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent massive metatranscriptome mining substantially expanded the diversity of the bacterial RNA virome, suggesting that additional groups of riboviruses infecting bacterial hosts remain to be discovered. We employed full length double-stranded (ds) RNA sequencing for identification of riboviruses associated with microbial consortia dominated by bacteria and archaea in acidic hot springs in Japan. Whole sequences of two groups of multisegmented riboviruses genomes were obtained.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPost-mega-earthquake geochemical and microbiological properties in subseafloor sediments of the Japan Trench accretionary wedge were investigated using core samples from Hole C0019E, which was drilled down to 851 m below seafloor (mbsf) at a water depth of 6,890 m. Methane was abundant throughout accretionary prism sediments; however, its concentration decreased close to the plate boundary decollement. Methane isotope systematics indicated a biogenic origin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the ongoing debates about eukaryogenesis-the series of evolutionary events leading to the emergence of the eukaryotic cell from prokaryotic ancestors-members of the Asgard archaea play a key part as the closest archaeal relatives of eukaryotes. However, the nature and phylogenetic identity of the last common ancestor of Asgard archaea and eukaryotes remain unresolved. Here we analyse distinct phylogenetic marker datasets of an expanded genomic sampling of Asgard archaea and evaluate competing evolutionary scenarios using state-of-the-art phylogenomic approaches.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn deep-sea hydrothermal vent environments, metal-enriched fluids and sediments abound, making these habitats ideal to study metal resistance in prokaryotes. In this investigation, we employed transcriptomics and shotgun proteomics with scanning transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (STEM-EDX) to better understand mechanisms of tolerance for cadmium (Cd) and copper (Cu) at stress-inducing concentrations in Nitratiruptor sp. SB155-2 (phylum Campylobacterota).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRNA viruses are distributed throughout various environments, and most have recently been identified by metatranscriptome sequencing. However, due to the high nucleotide diversity of RNA viruses, it is still challenging to identify novel RNA viruses from metatranscriptome data. To overcome this issue, we created a dataset of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) domains that are essential for all RNA viruses belonging to Orthornavirae.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIsolated RNA viruses mainly parasitize eukaryotes. RNA viruses either expand horizontally by infecting hosts (acute type) or coexist with the host and are vertically inherited (persistent type). The significance of persistent-type RNA viruses in environmental viromes (the main hosts are expected to be microbes) was only recently reported because they had previously been overlooked in virology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnaerobic ammonium-oxidizing (anammox) bacteria are slow-growing and fastidious bacteria, and limited numbers of enrichment cultures have been established. A metagenomic ana-lysis of our 5 established anammox bacterial enrichment cultures was performed in the present study. Fourteen high-quality metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) were obtained, including those of 5 anammox Planctomycetota (Candidatus Brocadia, Ca.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAsgardarchaeota harbour many eukaryotic signature proteins and are widely considered to represent the closest archaeal relatives of eukaryotes. Whether similarities between Asgard archaea and eukaryotes extend to their viromes remains unknown. Here we present 20 metagenome-assembled genomes of Asgardarchaeota from deep-sea sediments of the basin off the Shimokita Peninsula, Japan.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRNA virus populations are not clonal; rather, they comprise a mutant swarm in which sequences are slightly different from the master sequence. Genetic diversity within a population (intrapopulation genetic diversity) is critical for RNA viruses to survive under environmental stresses. Disinfection has become an important practice in the control of pathogenic viruses; however, the impact of intrapopulation genetic diversity on the sensitivity of disinfection, defined as -log (postdisinfected infectious titer/predisinfected titer), has not been elucidated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDNA chemical modifications, including methylation, are widespread and play important roles in prokaryotes and viruses. However, current knowledge of these modification systems is severely biased towards a limited number of culturable prokaryotes, despite the fact that a vast majority of microorganisms have not yet been cultured. Here, using single-molecule real-time sequencing, we conducted culture-independent 'metaepigenomic' analyses (an integrated analysis of metagenomics and epigenomics) of marine microbial communities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFZooplankton and viruses play a key role in marine ecosystems; however, their interactions have not been examined in detail. In the present study, the diversity of viruses associated with zooplankton collected using a plankton net (mesh size: 100 μm) in the subtropical western North Pacific was investigated by fragmented and primer ligated dsRNA sequencing. We obtained 21 and 168 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) of ssRNA and dsRNA viruses, respectively, containing RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCoenzyme F430, the prosthetic group of methyl coenzyme M reductase (MCR), is a key compound in methane metabolism. We applied coenzyme F430 as a function-specific biomarker of methanogenesis to subsurface marine sediments collected below the sulfate reduction zone to investigate the distribution and activity of methanogens. In addition, we examined the kinetics of the epimerization of coenzyme F430, which is the first stage of the degradation process after cell death, at various temperatures (4, 15, 34, 60 °C) and pH (5, 7, 9) conditions, which cover conditions of drilled sediments used in this study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFragmented and primer ligated dsRNA sequencing (FLDS) is a sequencing method applicable to long double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) that enables the complete genome sequencing of both double- and single-stranded RNA viruses. However, the application of this method on a low amount of dsRNA has been hindered by adaptor dimer formation during cDNA amplification and sequence library preparation. We herein developed FLDS ver.
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