During the culturing of cyanobacteria, heterotrophic bacteria can compete for nutrients, compromise the quality of the harvested biomass, or cause culture crashes. We systematically investigated the effects of depleting inorganic phosphate (Pi) on the growth of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, its community of heterotrophic bacteria, and the biomass's chemical composition. On the one hand, depleting Pi had minimal impact on total biomass, extracellular polymeric substances (ESP), soluble microbial products (SMP), and most types of intracellular organic polymers production. On the other hand, depleting Pi led to markedly less lipid content, less heterotrophic biomass, and a shift in the heterotrophic community from Burkholderiales to Sphingobacteriales and Saprospirales. The causes of the large impacts were that Synechocystis was much better at scavenging a very low Pi concentration and lowering the Pi available to the heterotrophs. This work lays a foundation for controlling the accumulation of heterotrophs and reducing their deleterious effects in cyanobacteria culturing.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00253-019-09817-9 | DOI Listing |
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
January 2025
Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125.
Microbial metabolism is impressively flexible, enabling growth even when available nutrients differ greatly from biomass in redox state. , for example, rearranges its physiology to grow on reduced and oxidized carbon sources through several forms of fermentation and respiration. To understand the limits on and evolutionary consequences of this metabolic flexibility, we developed a coarse-grained mathematical framework coupling redox chemistry with principles of cellular resource allocation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Adv
January 2025
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Cross-feeding involves microbes consuming exudates of other surrounding microbes, mediating elemental cycling. Characterizing the diversity of cross-feeding pathways in ocean microbes illuminates evolutionary forces driving self-organization of ocean ecosystems. Here, we uncover a purine and pyrimidine cross-feeding network in globally abundant groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
January 2025
Ali I. Al-Naimi Petroleum Engineering Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia.
Microbial impacts on early carbonate diagenesis, particularly the formation of Mg-carbonates at low temperatures, have long eluded scientists. Our breakthrough laboratory experiments with two species of halophilic aerobic bacteria and marine carbonate grains reveal that these bacteria created a distinctive protodolomite (disordered dolomite) rim around the grains. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) confirmed the protodolomite formation, while solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) revealed bacterial interactions with carboxylated organic matter, such as extracellular polymeric substances (EPS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Commun
January 2025
Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA.
Thermophilic microbial communities growing in low-oxygen environments often contain early-evolved archaea and bacteria, which hold clues regarding mechanisms of cellular respiration relevant to early life. Here, we conducted replicate metagenomic, metatranscriptomic, microscopic, and geochemical analyses on two hyperthermophilic (82-84 °C) filamentous microbial communities (Conch and Octopus Springs, Yellowstone National Park, WY) to understand the role of oxygen, sulfur, and arsenic in energy conservation and community composition. We report that hyperthermophiles within the Aquificota (Thermocrinis), Pyropristinus (Caldipriscus), and Thermoproteota (Pyrobaculum) are abundant in both communities; however, higher oxygen results in a greater diversity of aerobic heterotrophs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Commun
December 2024
AZTI, Marine Research, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Sukarrieta, Spain.
Marine brown algae produce the highly recalcitrant polysaccharide fucoidan, contributing to long-term oceanic carbon storage and climate regulation. Fucoidan is degraded by specialized heterotrophic bacteria, which promote ecosystem function and global carbon turnover using largely uncharacterized mechanisms. Here, we isolate and study two Planctomycetota strains from the microbiome associated with the alga Fucus spiralis, which grow efficiently on chemically diverse fucoidans.
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