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Microbial Genomics Sep 2023comprises a diverse group of bacteria with various lifestyles. Although best known for their nodule-based nitrogen-fixation in symbiosis with legumes, a select group of...
comprises a diverse group of bacteria with various lifestyles. Although best known for their nodule-based nitrogen-fixation in symbiosis with legumes, a select group of bradyrhizobia are also capable of photosynthesis. This ability seems to be rare among rhizobia, and its origin and evolution in these bacteria remain a subject of substantial debate. Therefore, our aim here was to investigate the distribution and evolution of photosynthesis in using comparative genomics and representative genomes from closely related taxa in the families and . We identified photosynthesis gene clusters (PGCs) in 25 genomes belonging to three different lineages, notably the so-called Photosynthetic, and supergroups. Also, two different PGC architectures were observed. One of these, PGC1, was present in genomes from the Photosynthetic supergroup and in three genomes from a species in the supergroup. The second cluster, PGC2, was also present in some strains from the supergroup, as well as in those from the supergroup. PGC2 was largely syntenic to the cluster found in and . Bayesian ancestral state reconstruction unambiguously showed that the ancestor of lacked a PGC and that it was acquired horizontally by various lineages. Maximum-likelihood phylogenetic analyses of individual photosynthesis genes also suggested multiple acquisitions through horizontal gene transfer, followed by vertical inheritance and gene losses within the different lineages. Overall, our findings add to the existing body of knowledge on ’s evolution and provide a meaningful basis from which to explore how these PGCs and the photosynthesis itself impact the physiology and ecology of these bacteria.
Topics: Bradyrhizobium; Photosynthesis
PubMed: 37676703
DOI: 10.1099/mgen.0.001105 -
BMC Infectious Diseases Dec 2023Roseomonas mucosa (R. mucosa) is a pink-pigmented, Gram-negative short rod bacterium. It is isolated from moist environments and skin, resistant to multiple drugs,...
BACKGROUND
Roseomonas mucosa (R. mucosa) is a pink-pigmented, Gram-negative short rod bacterium. It is isolated from moist environments and skin, resistant to multiple drugs, including broad-spectrum cephalosporins, and a rare cause of infection with limited reports. R. mucosa mostly causes catheter-related bloodstream infections, with even fewer reports of skin and soft tissue infections.
CASE PRESENTATION
A 10-year-old boy received topical steroid treatment for sebum-deficient eczema. A few days before the visit, he was bitten by an insect on the front of his right lower leg and scratched it due to itching. The day before the visit, redness, swelling, and mild pain in the same area were observed. Based on his symptoms, he was diagnosed with cellulitis. He was treated with sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim, and his symptoms improved. Pus culture revealed R. mucosa.
CONCLUSIONS
We report a rare case of cellulitis caused by R. mucosa. Infections caused by rare organisms that cause opportunistic infections, such as R. mucosa, should be considered in patients with compromised skin barrier function and regular topical steroid use. Gram stain detection of organisms other than Gram-positive cocci should be considered.
Topics: Male; Child; Humans; Cellulitis; Soft Tissue Infections; Methylobacteriaceae; Steroids
PubMed: 38082373
DOI: 10.1186/s12879-023-08875-9 -
Scientific Reports Feb 2024Formate dehydrogenase (FDH) is critical for the conversion between formate and carbon dioxide. Despite its importance, the structural complexity of FDH and difficulties...
Formate dehydrogenase (FDH) is critical for the conversion between formate and carbon dioxide. Despite its importance, the structural complexity of FDH and difficulties in the production of the enzyme have made elucidating its unique physicochemical properties challenging. Here, we purified recombinant Methylobacterium extorquens AM1 FDH (MeFDH1) and used cryo-electron microscopy to determine its structure. We resolved a heterodimeric MeFDH1 structure at a resolution of 2.8 Å, showing a noncanonical active site and a well-embedded Fe-S redox chain relay. In particular, the tungsten bis-molybdopterin guanine dinucleotide active site showed an open configuration with a flexible C-terminal cap domain, suggesting structural and dynamic heterogeneity in the enzyme.
Topics: Cryoelectron Microscopy; Formate Dehydrogenases; Methylobacterium extorquens; Bacterial Proteins
PubMed: 38360844
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-54205-7 -
Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek Dec 2023Methylorubrum extorquens is an important model methylotroph and has enormous potential for the development of C1-based microbial cell factories. During strain...
Methylorubrum extorquens is an important model methylotroph and has enormous potential for the development of C1-based microbial cell factories. During strain construction, regulated promoters with a low background expression level are important genetic tools for expression of potentially toxic genes. Here we present an accordingly optimised promoter, which can be used for that purpose. During construction and testing of terpene production strains harbouring a recombinant mevalonate pathway, strong growth defects were observed which made strain development impossible. After isolation and characterisation of suppressor mutants, we discovered a variant of the cumate-inducible promoter P used in this approach. Deletion of 28 nucleotides resulted in an extremely low background expression level, but also reduced the maximal expression strength to about 30% of the original promoter. This tightly repressed promoter version is a powerful module for controlled expression of potentially toxic genes in M. extorquens.
Topics: Promoter Regions, Genetic; Methylobacterium extorquens; Methanol
PubMed: 37751033
DOI: 10.1007/s10482-023-01880-7 -
PloS One 2023Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are ubiquitous environmental opportunistic pathogens that can cause chronic lung disease. Within the United States, Hawai'i has the...
Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are ubiquitous environmental opportunistic pathogens that can cause chronic lung disease. Within the United States, Hawai'i has the highest incidence of NTM lung disease, though the precise reasons are yet to be fully elucidated. One possibility is the high prevalence of NTM in the Hawai'i environment acting as a potential reservoir for opportunistic NTM infections. Through our previous initiatives to collect and characterize NTM in Hawai'i, community scientists of Hawai'i have collected thousands of environmental samples for sequencing. Here, these community scientists were invited for the first time into a high school lab in O'ahu for a genomic sequencing workshop, where participants sequenced four of the collected isolate genomic samples using the Oxford Nanopore Technologies MinION sequencer. Participants generated high quality long read data that when combined with short read Illumina data yielded complete bacterial genomic assemblies suitable for in-depth analysis. The gene annotation analysis identified a suite of genes that might help NTM thrive in the Hawai'i environment. Further, we found evidence of co-occurring methylobacteria, revealed from the sequencing data, suggesting that in some cases methylobacteria and NTM may coexist in the same niche, challenging previously accepted paradigms. The sequencing efforts presented here generated novel insights regarding the potential survival strategies and microbial interactions of NTM in the geographic hot spot of Hawai'i. We highlight the contributions of community scientists and present an activity that can be reimplemented as a workshop or classroom activity by other research groups to engage their local communities.
Topics: Humans; Hawaii; Nontuberculous Mycobacteria; Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous; Chromosome Mapping; Data Accuracy; Methylobacterium
PubMed: 37703253
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0291072 -
Folia Microbiologica Feb 2024The effectiveness of Methylobacterium symbioticum in maize and strawberry plants was measured under different doses of nitrogen fertilisation. The biostimulant effect of...
The effectiveness of Methylobacterium symbioticum in maize and strawberry plants was measured under different doses of nitrogen fertilisation. The biostimulant effect of the bacteria was observed in maize and strawberry plants treated with the biological inoculant under different doses of nitrogen fertiliser compared to untreated plants (control). It was found that bacteria allowed a 50 and 25% decrease in the amount of nitrogen applied in maize and strawberry crops, respectively, and the photosynthetic capacity increased compared with the control plant under all nutritional conditions. A decrease in nitrate reductase activity in inoculated maize plants indicated that the bacteria affects the metabolism of the plant. In addition, inoculated strawberry plants grown with a 25% reduction in nitrogen had a higher concentration of nitrogen in leaves than control plants under optimal nutritional conditions. Again, this indicates that Methylobacterium symbioticum provide an additional supply of nitrogen.
Topics: Zea mays; Fragaria; Methylobacterium; Nitrogen; Photosynthesis; Crops, Agricultural
PubMed: 37526803
DOI: 10.1007/s12223-023-01078-4 -
Animals : An Open Access Journal From... Apr 2024The gut microbiome significantly influences the health and productivity of silkworms (), the cornerstone of sericulture. With the increasing use of cost-effective...
The gut microbiome significantly influences the health and productivity of silkworms (), the cornerstone of sericulture. With the increasing use of cost-effective artificial diets in sericulture, it is crucial to understand how these diets impact the silkworm gut microbiomes. Here we employed 16S rRNA sequencing to delineate the impact of three distinct dietary regimens on the silkworm gut microbiomes: exclusive mulberry leaf diet (SY), exclusive artificial feed diet (SL), and a sequential transition from artificial feed to mulberry leaves (ZS). Our results unveiled stark differences in microbial diversity across the groups, with the ZS group displaying an intermediary complexity. LefSe and random forest analyses identified Methylobacteriaceae, , and as significantly enriched in the ZS group, suggesting their potential to facilitate silkworms' adaptation to dietary transitions. Functional profiling revealed differential pathway regulation, indicating a metabolic reconfiguration in response to dietary modulations. Notably, the enrichment of and in both the SL and ZS groups highlights their potential as probiotics in artificial diets. Our findings provide insights into the diet adaptation mechanisms of silkworm gut microbiota, paving the way for harnessing the intestinal bacteria to enhance silkworm health and silk production through targeted microbial interventions in sericulture practices.
PubMed: 38731265
DOI: 10.3390/ani14091261 -
PloS One 2024Assessing the microbes present on tree fruit carpospheres as the fruit enters postharvest processing could have useful applications, as these microbes could have a major...
Assessing the microbes present on tree fruit carpospheres as the fruit enters postharvest processing could have useful applications, as these microbes could have a major influence on spoilage, food safety, verification of packing process controls, or other aspects of processing. The goal of this study was to establish a baseline profile of bacterial communities associated with apple (pome fruit), peach (stone fruit), and Navel orange (citrus fruit) at harvest. We found that commercial peaches had the greatest bacterial richness followed by oranges then apples. Time of harvest significantly changed bacterial diversity in oranges and peaches, but not apples. Shifts in diversity varied by fruit type, where 70% of the variability in beta diversity on the apple carposphere was driven by the gain and loss of species (i.e., nestedness). The peach and orange carposphere bacterial community shifts were driven by nearly an even split between turnover (species replacement) and nestedness. We identified a small core microbiome for apples across and between growing seasons that included only Methylobacteriaceae and Sphingomonadaceae among the samples, while peaches had a larger core microbiome composed of five bacterial families: Bacillaceae, Geodermtophilaceae, Nocardioidaceae, Micrococcaeceae, and Trueperaceae. There was a relatively diverse core microbiome for oranges that shared all the families present on apples and peaches, except for Trueperaceae, but also included an additional nine bacterial families not shared including Oxalobacteraceae, Cytophagaceae, and Comamonadaceae. Overall, our findings illustrate the important temporal dynamics of bacterial communities found on major commercial tree fruit, but also the core bacterial families that constantly remain with both implications being important entering postharvest packing and processing.
Topics: Humans; Prunus persica; Seasons; Bacteria; Citrus sinensis; Fruit
PubMed: 38625898
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0297453 -
MBio Jan 2024Bacteria known as pink-pigmented facultative methylotrophs colonize many diverse environments on earth, play an important role in the carbon cycle, and in some cases...
Bacteria known as pink-pigmented facultative methylotrophs colonize many diverse environments on earth, play an important role in the carbon cycle, and in some cases promote plant growth. However, little is known about how these organisms interact with each other and their environment. In this work, we identify one of the chemical signals commonly used by these bacteria and discover that this signal controls swarming motility in the pink-pigmented facultative methylotroph DSM5686. This work provides new molecular details about interactions between these important bacteria and will help scientists predict these interactions and the group behaviors they regulate from genomic sequencing information.
Topics: Quorum Sensing; Acyl-Butyrolactones; Methylobacterium
PubMed: 38085021
DOI: 10.1128/mbio.01999-23