scholarly journals Metabolic and metagenomic profiling of hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms obtained from the deep biosphere of the Gulf of México

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aldo Moreno-Ulloa ◽  
Victoria Sicairos Diaz ◽  
Javier A. Tejeda-Mora ◽  
Marla I. Macias Contreras ◽  
Fernando Díaz Castillo ◽  
...  

AbstractMarine microbes are capable of degrading hydrocarbons; however, those inhabiting the deep biosphere (>1000 m) remain largely unexplored. Microbial metabolism could lead to the generation of diverse chemistries (some with therapeutic activities), but the impact of using hydrocarbons as the sole source of microbial energy in the synthesis of metabolites, remains obscure. Here, we investigated the metagenomic and metabolomic profile of two deep-marine sediments (>1 200 m deep, designated as A7 and B18) collected from the Gulf of México (GM) when grown for 28 days with a simple mixture of 4 hydrocarbons and complex hydrocarbon mixture (petroleum API 40) as their sole source of energy. State of the art techniques and analysis (e.g., Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking, network annotation propagation [NAP], and MS2LDA) were used to describe the chemistries associated to the microbial utilization of hydrocarbons. The metagenomic sequencing analysis suggests a predominant abundance of Proteobacteria in environmental and API 40-enriched samples, while the abundance of Pseudomonas increased after microbial growth with API 40. The metabolomic analysis suggests the presence of diverse chemistries predominantly associated with lipid and lipid-like and phenyl propanoids and polyketides superclass (Classyfire annotation). Hydrocarbon derivatives were detected as carboxylic acids (e.g., azelaic and sebacic acid) or alcohols, while non-hydrocarbon related chemistries were also detected including tetracycline-related metabolites and sphinganines. Our study provides valuable chemical and microbiological information of microbes inhabiting one of the most understudied ecosystems in the earth, the deep marine biosphere.

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1825
Author(s):  
Mohamed Zeineldin ◽  
Ameer Megahed ◽  
Benjamin Blair ◽  
Brian Aldridge ◽  
James Lowe

The gastrointestinal microbiome plays an important role in swine health and wellbeing, but the gut archaeome structure and function in swine remain largely unexplored. To date, no metagenomics-based analysis has been done to assess the impact of an early life antimicrobials intervention on the gut archaeome. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of perinatal tulathromycin (TUL) administration on the fecal archaeome composition and diversity in suckling piglets using metagenomic sequencing analysis. Sixteen litters were administered one of two treatments (TUL; 2.5 mg/kg IM and control (CONT); saline 1cc IM) soon after birth. Deep fecal swabs were collected from all piglets on days 0 (prior to treatment), 5, and 20 post intervention. Each piglet’s fecal archaeome was composed of rich and diverse communities that showed significant changes over time during the suckling period. At the phylum level, 98.24% of the fecal archaeome across all samples belonged to Euryarchaeota. At the genus level, the predominant archaeal genera across all samples were Methanobrevibacter (43.31%), Methanosarcina (10.84%), Methanococcus (6.51%), and Methanocorpusculum (6.01%). The composition and diversity of the fecal archaeome between the TUL and CONT groups at the same time points were statistically insignificant. Our findings indicate that perinatal TUL metaphylaxis seems to have a minimal effect on the gut archaeome composition and diversity in sucking piglets. This study improves our current understanding of the fecal archaeome structure in sucking piglets and provides a rationale for future studies to decipher its role in and impact on host robustness during this critical phase of production.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Murphy ◽  
X.C. Morgan ◽  
X.Y. Wang ◽  
K. Wickens ◽  
G. Purdie ◽  
...  

Probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus HN001 given in early life has been shown to reduce infant eczema risk, but its effect on gut microbiota development has not been quantitatively and functionally examined. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of early life probiotic exposure on the composition and functional capacity of infant gut microbiota from birth to 2 years considering the effects of age, delivery mode, antibiotics, pets and eczema. We performed shotgun metagenomic sequencing analysis of 650 infant faecal samples, collected at birth, 3, 12, and 24 months, as part of a randomised, controlled, 3-arm trial assessing the effect of L. rhamnosus HN001, Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis HN019 supplementation on eczema development in 474 infants. There was a 50% reduced eczema risk in the HN001 probiotic group compared to placebo. Both mothers (from 35 weeks gestation until 6 months post-partum if breastfeeding) and infants (from birth to 2 years) received either a placebo or one of two probiotics, L. rhamnosus HN001 (6×109 cfu), or B. animalis subsp. lactis HN019 (9×109 cfu). L. rhamnosus HN001 probiotic supplementation was associated with increased overall glycerol-3 phosphate transport capacity and enrichment of L. rhamnosus. There were no other significant changes in infant gut microbiota composition or diversity. Increased capacity to transport glycerol-3-phosphate was positively correlated with relative abundance of L. rhamnosus. Children who developed eczema had gut microbiota with increased capacity for glycosaminoglycan degradation and flagellum assembly but had no significant differences in microbiota composition or diversity. Early life HN001 probiotic use is associated with both increased L. rhamnosus and increased infant gut microbiota functional capacity to transport glycerol-3 phosphate. The mechanistic relationship of such functional alteration in gut microbiota with reduced eczema risk and long-term health merits further investigation.


Author(s):  
Marc Oliva ◽  
Pierre H. H. Schneeberger ◽  
Victor Rey ◽  
Matthew Cho ◽  
Rachel Taylor ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Oral and gut microbiomes have emerged as potential biomarkers in cancer. We characterised the oral and gut microbiomes in a prospective observational cohort of HPV+ oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) patients and evaluated the impact of chemoradiotherapy (CRT). Methods Saliva, oropharyngeal swabs over the tumour site and stool were collected at baseline and post-CRT. 16S RNA and shotgun metagenomic sequencing were used to generate taxonomic profiles, including relative abundance (RA), bacterial density, α-diversity and β-diversity. Results A total of 132 samples from 22 patients were analysed. Baseline saliva and swabs had similar taxonomic composition (R2 = 0.006; p = 0.827). Oropharyngeal swabs and stool taxonomic composition varied significantly by stage, with increased oral RA of Fusobacterium nucleatum observed in stage III disease (p < 0.05). CRT significantly reduced the species richness and increased the RA of gut-associated taxa in oropharyngeal swabs (p < 0.05), while it had no effect in stool samples. These findings remained significant when adjusted by stage, smoking status and antibiotic use. Conclusions Baseline oral and gut microbiomes differ by stage in this HPV+ cohort. CRT caused a shift towards a gut-like microbiome composition in oropharyngeal swabs. Stage-specific features and the transitions in oral microbiome might have prognostic and therapeutic implications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pimlapas Leekitcharoenphon ◽  
Markus Hans Kristofer Johansson ◽  
Patrick Munk ◽  
Burkhard Malorny ◽  
Magdalena Skarżyńska ◽  
...  

AbstractThe emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the biggest health threats globally. In addition, the use of antimicrobial drugs in humans and livestock is considered an important driver of antimicrobial resistance. The commensal microbiota, and especially the intestinal microbiota, has been shown to have an important role in the emergence of AMR. Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) also play a central role in facilitating the acquisition and spread of AMR genes. We isolated Escherichia coli (n = 627) from fecal samples in respectively 25 poultry, 28 swine, and 15 veal calf herds from 6 European countries to investigate the phylogeny of E. coli at country, animal host and farm levels. Furthermore, we examine the evolution of AMR in E. coli genomes including an association with virulence genes, plasmids and MGEs. We compared the abundance metrics retrieved from metagenomic sequencing and whole genome sequenced of E. coli isolates from the same fecal samples and farms. The E. coli isolates in this study indicated no clonality or clustering based on country of origin and genetic markers; AMR, and MGEs. Nonetheless, mobile genetic elements play a role in the acquisition of AMR and virulence genes. Additionally, an abundance of AMR was agreeable between metagenomic and whole genome sequencing analysis for several AMR classes in poultry fecal samples suggesting that metagenomics could be used as an indicator for surveillance of AMR in E. coli isolates and vice versa.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Verónica Lloréns-Rico ◽  
Sara Vieira-Silva ◽  
Pedro J. Gonçalves ◽  
Gwen Falony ◽  
Jeroen Raes

AbstractWhile metagenomic sequencing has become the tool of preference to study host-associated microbial communities, downstream analyses and clinical interpretation of microbiome data remains challenging due to the sparsity and compositionality of sequence matrices. Here, we evaluate both computational and experimental approaches proposed to mitigate the impact of these outstanding issues. Generating fecal metagenomes drawn from simulated microbial communities, we benchmark the performance of thirteen commonly used analytical approaches in terms of diversity estimation, identification of taxon-taxon associations, and assessment of taxon-metadata correlations under the challenge of varying microbial ecosystem loads. We find quantitative approaches including experimental procedures to incorporate microbial load variation in downstream analyses to perform significantly better than computational strategies designed to mitigate data compositionality and sparsity, not only improving the identification of true positive associations, but also reducing false positive detection. When analyzing simulated scenarios of low microbial load dysbiosis as observed in inflammatory pathologies, quantitative methods correcting for sampling depth show higher precision compared to uncorrected scaling. Overall, our findings advocate for a wider adoption of experimental quantitative approaches in microbiome research, yet also suggest preferred transformations for specific cases where determination of microbial load of samples is not feasible.


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. s141-s142
Author(s):  
Jiaxian Shen ◽  
Alexander McFarland ◽  
Ryan Blaustein ◽  
Mary Hayden ◽  
Vincent Young ◽  
...  

Background: Cultivation of targeted pathogens has been long recognized as a gold standard for healthcare surveillance. However, there is an emergent need to characterize all viable microorganisms in healthcare facilities to understand the role that both clinical and nonclinical microorganisms play in healthcare-associated infections. Metagenomic sequencing allows detection of entire microbial communities, in contrast to targeted identification by cultivation. Widespread application of metagenomic sequencing has been impeded in part because the sensitivity and specificity are unknown, which inhibits our ability to interpret results for risk assessment. To assess the impact of sample preparation methods on sensitivity and specificity, we compared several pretreatment steps followed by metagenomic sequencing, and we performed culture-based analyses. Methods: We collected 120 surface swabs from the medical intensive care unit at Rush University Medical Center, which we aggregated to create a representative microbiome sample. We then subjected aliquots to different processing methods (DNA extraction methods, internal standard addition, propidium monoazide (PMA) treatment, and whole-cell serial filtration). We evaluated the effects of these methods based on DNA yields and metagenomic sequencing outcomes. We also compared the metagenomic results to the microbial identifications obtained by cultivation using environmental microbiology methods and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). Results: Our results demonstrate that bead-beating and heat lysis followed by liquid-liquid extraction is the optimal method for the identification of low-biomass surface-associated microbes, as opposed to widely used column-based and magnetic bead-based methods. For low-biomass surface-associated samples, ~590,000 reads per sample are sufficient for ≍90% coverage in metagenomic sequencing (Fig. 1). The ZymoBIOMICS microbial community standard is not appropriate for methods assessing membrane integrity. For the identification of putatively viable microorganisms, PMA treatment is promising, although elimination of signals from nonviable organisms will reduce the overall detectable signal. Combining PMA-treated metagenomic sequencing with cultivation yields the most comprehensive results, particularly for low-abundance taxa, despite high sequencing coverage (Fig. 2). To distribute more detection resources to bacteria, our target domain, we tried whole-cell filtration prior to extraction, attempting to isolate bacterial cells from eukaryotic cells and other particles. For low-biomass surface-associated samples, the sample loss and the difficulties in performing filtration outweigh the slight increase of bacterial signal. Conclusions: Despite optimization, we observed certain blind spots in both cultivation and metagenomic sequencing. This information is essential for informed risk assessment. Further research is needed to identify additional limitations to ensure that results from metagenomic sequencing can be interpreted in the context of healthcare-acquired infection prevention.Funding: This work was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (BAA FY2018-OADS-01 Contract 02915).Disclosures: None


2005 ◽  
Vol 289 ◽  
pp. 89-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
HA Hernández Arana ◽  
RM Warwick ◽  
MJ Attrill ◽  
AA Rowden ◽  
G Gold-Bouchot

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