西藏黄绿卷毛菇生境土壤微生物群落组成

牧草外生菌根菌黄绿卷毛菇Floccularia luteovirens具有较高的生态和经济价值,其生境微生物对其菌丝生长、菌根化和子实体形成具有促进作用。本研究利用高通量测序技术对西藏黄绿卷毛菇菌窝土壤及其周围无菇土壤微生物群落组成进行分析,挖掘促进黄绿卷毛菇生长的有益微生物资源。结果显示,西藏黄绿卷毛菇生境土壤细菌隶属于17门22纲116目161科227属,其中酸杆菌门、变形菌门、拟杆菌门和疣微菌门累计比例高达81.75%;生境土壤真菌隶属于5门17纲34目55科61属,子囊菌门和担子菌门累计比例高达80.89%。对比周围无菇土壤的微生物群落,促进黄绿卷毛菇生长的潜在细菌类群为Flavisolibacter、黄杆菌属Flavobacterium、芽单胞菌属Gemmatimonas、Haliangium、赛格特杆菌Segetibacter和鞘氨醇单胞菌属Sphingomonas;促进黄绿卷毛菇生长的潜在真菌类群为斜盖伞属Clitopilus、丝膜菌属Cortinarius、被孢霉属Mortierella和毛霉属Mucor。土壤微生物促进黄绿卷毛菇生长繁殖的机制有待进一步研究。     

奶牛瘤胃微生物元基因组文库中脂肪酶的筛选与酶学性质

利用含有三油酸甘油酯的脂肪酶选择性筛选培养基,从奶牛瘤胃微生物元基因组文库15360个克隆中,筛选得到了18个脂肪酶阳性克隆,其插入片段大约为60kb,并且各个克隆的插入片段各不一样。利用p-NPP法对脂肪酶克隆的脂肪酶活性分析,表明均具有大小不等的脂肪酶活性。底物特异性分析表明Lipase6、Lipase7和Lipase8分别对C16底物(对硝基苯棕榈酸酯)、C12底物(对硝基苯月桂酸酯)和C16底物(对硝基苯棕榈酸酯)水解能力最强。Lipase6、Lipase7、Lipase8的脂肪酶最适pH为7.5;Lipase8的脂肪酶活性半衰期随反应温度的升高而缩短,70oC时能达到30min。本研究所筛选的脂肪酶具有不同的底物特异性和较好的热稳定性,这对于工业化生产具有一定的应用潜力。     

长期施肥对小麦-玉米作物系统土壤颗粒有机碳和氮的影响

通过对华北平原小麦-玉米轮作农田生态系统18年田间施肥试验,研究了长期不同施肥处理对耕层(0～20 cm)土壤颗粒有机碳和氮及矿质结合有机碳和氮的影响.施肥处理包括化肥NPK不同组合（NPK、NP、NK、PK）、全部施用有机肥(OM)、一半有机肥+化肥NPK(1/2OMN)及不施肥(CK)共7个处理.结果表明：各施肥处理均能在不同程度上增加土壤颗粒有机碳和氮及矿质结合有机碳和氮含量,提高土壤颗粒有机碳和氮分配比例及颗粒有机质C/N.施肥处理颗粒有机碳和氮储量较不施肥处理分别增加11.7%～196.8%和13.0%～152.2%,土壤颗粒有机碳对总有机碳储量增加的贡献率为31.5%～67.3%,土壤颗粒有机氮对全氮储量增加的贡献率为14.3%～100.0%;矿质结合有机碳和氮储量较不施肥处理分别增加2.0%～75.0%和0.0%～69.8%.各处理颗粒有机碳和氮及矿质结合有机碳和氮储量均以OM处理最高,且有机肥与化肥NPK配施高于单施化肥各处理,而化肥处理中NPK均衡施用效果最好.说明施用有机肥、有机肥与化肥NPK配施及化肥NPK均衡施用是增加土壤颗粒有机碳和氮及矿质结合有机碳和氮的关键.     

Phage Phenomics: Physiological Approaches to Characterize Novel Viral Proteins

Current investigations into phage-host interactions are dependent on extrapolating knowledge from (meta)genomes. Interestingly, 60 - 95% of all phage sequences share no homology to current annotated proteins. As a result, a large proportion of phage genes are annotated as hypothetical. This reality heavily affects the annotation of both structural and auxiliary metabolic genes. Here we present phenomic methods designed to capture the physiological response(s) of a selected host during expression of one of these unknown phage genes. Multi-phenotype Assay Plates (MAPs) are used to monitor the diversity of host substrate utilization and subsequent biomass formation, while metabolomics provides bi-product analysis by monitoring metabolite abundance and diversity. Both tools are used simultaneously to provide a phenotypic profile associated with expression of a single putative phage open reading frame (ORF). Representative results for both methods are compared, highlighting the phenotypic profile differences of a host carrying either putative structural or metabolic phage genes. In addition, the visualization techniques and high throughput computational pipelines that facilitated experimental analysis are presented.     

The molecular basis for adaptive evolution in novel extradiol dioxygenases retrieved from the metagenome

Extradiol dioxygenase (EDO) catalyzes metal-dependent ring cleavage of catecholic substrates. We previously screened a metagenomic library of activated sludge used to treat industrial wastewater contaminated with phenols and cyanide to identify 43 EDO genes. Here, we have characterized the enzymes belonging to novel I.2.G, I.3.M and I.3.N subfamilies. The I.3.M and I.3.N EDOs were Fe(II) dependent and preferred bicyclic substrates, whereas the I.2.G EDOs were Mn(II) dependent, preferred monocyclic substrates and had the highest affinity for catechol reported thus far. The I.2.G EDOs were more tolerant against heat (60 °C for 1 h) and chemical inhibitors (H₂O₂ and NaCN) than I.3.M and I.3.N EDOs. Considering the dominance of the I.2.G EDOs over all retrieved EDOs (20 of 43 clones) and the presence of cyanide in the environment, this high affinity for substrate and structural robustness should provide survival advantages to host microorganisms. The 20 I.2.G EDOs were classified into six groups based on the amino acid sequence of the predicted ancestor, 1A1. Enzymes were chosen from each group and characterized. Two descendents, 1D2 and 5B2, each had a k _cat/ K _M approximately twofold higher than that of 1A1 and reduced thermal stability, suggesting that descendents of 1A1 have adapted evolutionarily by a trade-off of inherent stability for increased activity.     

Diversity of probiotic adhesion genes in the gastrointestinal tract of goats

Gastrointestinal (GI) microflora is an important system in the host, as it has both pathogenic and probiotic bacteria. Most of the studies were focused on the human gut microflora and the available information on the intestinal microflora of goats was limited. This urged the need to inspect the impacts of the goat's gut microflora. Metagenomic investigation of probiotic bacteria in the GI tract of goat is one of the challenging streams because of the less available data of the uncultivable bacteria. In our report, comparative analysis of metagenomic and enrichment samples of goat intestinal content was done and this approach will be helpful in analyzing the identification of uncultivable and cultivable probiotic bacteria. This study mainly focused on three key probiotic adhesion genes, such as EF-Tu, mapA, and mub. The GI of four different goats were investigated for these genes. The data from this study showed that there is a wide diversity of these genes among goat intestinal samples.     

环境微生物研究中机器学习算法及应用

微生物在环境中无处不在，它们不仅是生物地球化学循环和环境演化的关键参与者，也在环境监测、生态治理和保护中发挥着重要作用。随着高通量技术的发展，大量微生物数据产生，运用机器学习对环境微生物大数据进行建模和分析，在微生物标志物识别、污染物预测和环境质量预测等领域的科学研究和社会应用方面均具有重要意义。机器学习可分为监督学习和无监督学习2大类。在微生物组学研究当中，无监督学习通过聚类、降维等方法高效地学习输入数据的特征，进而对微生物数据进行整合和归类。监督学习运用有特征和标记的微生物数据集训练模型，在面对只有特征没有标记的数据时可以判断出标记，从而实现对新数据的分类、识别和预测。然而，复杂的机器学习算法通常以牺牲可解释性为代价来重点关注模型预测的准确性。机器学习模型通常可以看作预测特定结果的“黑匣子”，即对模型如何得出预测所知甚少。为了将机器学习更多地运用于微生物组学研究、提高我们提取有价值的微生物信息的能力，深入了解机器学习算法、提高模型的可解释性尤为重要。本文主要介绍在环境微生物领域常用的机器学习算法和基于微生物组数据的机器学习模型的构建步骤，包括特征选择、算法选择、模型构建和评估等，并对各种机器学习模型在环境微生物领域的应用进行综述，深入探究微生物组与周围环境之间的关联，探讨提高模型可解释性的方法，并为未来环境监测、环境健康预测提供科学参考。     

Genetic and functional properties of uncultivated MCG archaea assessed by metagenome and gene expression analyses

The Miscellaneous Crenarchaeota group (MCG) Archaea is one of the predominant archaeal groups in anoxic environments and may have significant roles in the global biogeochemical cycles. However, no isolate of MCG has been cultivated or characterized to date. In this study, we investigated the genetic organization, ecophysiological properties and evolutionary relationships of MCG archaea with other archaeal members using metagenome information and the result of gene expression experiments. A comparison of the gene organizations and similarities around the 16S rRNA genes from all available MCG fosmid and cosmid clones revealed no significant synteny among genomic fragments, demonstrating that there are large genetic variations within members of the MCG. Phylogenetic analyses of large-subunit+small-subunit rRNA, concatenated ribosomal protein genes and topoisomerases IB gene (TopoIB) all demonstrate that MCG constituted a sister lineage to the newly proposed archaeal phylum Aigarchaeota and Thaumarchaeota. Genes involved in protocatechuate degradation and chemotaxis were found in a MCG fosmid 75G8 genome fragment, suggesting that this MCG member may have a role in the degradation of aromatic compounds. Moreover, the expression of a putative 4-carboxymuconolactone decarboxylase was observed when the sediment was supplemented with protocatechuate, further supporting the hypothesis that this MCG member degrades aromatic compounds.     

沼气池宏基因组文库中未培养微生物β-葡萄糖苷酶基因的克隆与鉴定

以间接提取法提取了沼气池样品的微生物宏基因组DNA,用柯斯质粒载体pWEB:TNC构建了一个含三万个克隆的沼气池宏基因组文库,对文库中的克隆随机分析表明,该文库的外源片段平均长度为40 kb,文库的总容量为1 .2×106kb。对其中的一个在七叶苷平板上显色的阳性克隆pGXN100进行进一步亚克隆、测序和序列分析。结果表明,pGXN100上有一个全长为1 863bp的ORF,编码621个氨基酸组成的蛋白质。将该基因命名为Unglu100。与产气克雷伯菌属的一个β-葡萄糖苷酶基因AN292在核苷酸和氨基酸水平上分别有76%和85%的同源性,利用SMART软件进行预测表明,Unglu100可能是PTS中β-葡萄糖苷酶特异性的转运蛋白组件。     

Cloning and Heterologous Expression of the Vibrioferrin Biosynthetic Gene Cluster from a Marine Metagenomic Library

A biosynthetic gene cluster of siderophore consisting of five open reading frames (ORFs) was cloned by functional screening of a metagenomic library constructed from tidal-flat sediment. Expression of the cloned biosynthetic genes in Escherichia coli led to the production of vibrioferrin, a siderophore originally reported for the marine bacterium Vibrio parahaemolyticus. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of heterologous production of a siderophore by biosynthetic genes cloned from a metagenomic library. The cloned cluster was one of the largest of the clusters obtained by functional screening. In this study, we demonstrated and extended the possibility of function-based metagenomic research.