HR: 16:15h
AN: B14A-02 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: Natural Microbial Assemblages Reflect Distinct Organismal and Functional Partitioning
AU: * Wilmes, P
EM: pwilmes@berkeley.edu
AF: University of California at Berkeley, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AU: Andersson, A
EM: doubleanders@gmail.com
AF: University of California at Berkeley, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AU: Kalnejais, L H
EM: linda_k@eps.berkeley.edu
AF: University of California at Berkeley, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AU: VerBerkmoes, N C
EM: verberkmoesn@ornl.gov
AF: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, United States
AU: Lefsrud, M G
EM: lefsrudmg@ornl.gov
AF: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, United States
AU: Lefsrud, M G
EM: lefsrudmg@ornl.gov
AF: McGill University, Department of Bioresource Engineering, Montreal, QC H9X 3V9, Canada
AU: Wexler, M
EM: M.Wexler@uea.ac.uk
AF: University of East Anglia, School of Biological University, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom
AU: Singer, S W
EM: singer2@llnl.gov
AF: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Biosciences Directorate, Livermore, CA 94550, United States
AU: Shah, M
EM: shahmb@ornl.gov
AF: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Life Sciences Division, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, United States
AU: Bond, P L
EM: phil.bond@uq.edu.au
AF: University of Queensland, Advanced Wastewater Management Centre, Queensland, 4072, Australia
AU: Thelen, M P
EM: mthelen@llnl.gov
AF: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Biosciences Directorate, Livermore, CA 94550, United States
AU: Hettich, R L
EM: hettichrl@ornl.gov
AF: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, United States
AU: Banfield, J F
EM: jbanfield@berkeley.edu
AF: University of California at Berkeley, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AU: Banfield, J F
EM: jbanfield@berkeley.edu
AF: University of California at Berkeley, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AB: The ability to link microbial community structure to function has long been a primary focus of environmental microbiology. With the advent of community genomic and proteomic techniques, along with advances in microscopic imaging techniques, it is now possible to gain insights into the organismal and functional makeup of microbial communities. Biofilms growing within highly acidic solutions inside the Richmond Mine (Iron Mountain, Redding, California) exhibit distinct macro- and microscopic morphologies. They are composed of microorganisms belonging to the three domains of life, including archaea, bacteria and eukarya. The proportion of each organismal type depends on sampling location and developmental stage. For example, mature biofilms floating on top of acid mine drainage (AMD) pools exhibit layers consisting of a densely packed bottom layer of the chemoautolithotroph Leptospirillum group II, a less dense top layer composed mainly of archaea, and fungal filaments spanning across the entire biofilm. The expression of cytochrome 579 (the most highly abundant protein in the biofilm, believed to be central to iron oxidation and encoded by Leptospirillum group II) is localized at the interface of the biofilm with the AMD solution, highlighting that biofilm architecture is reflected at the functional gene expression level. Distinct functional partitioning is also apparent in a biological wastewater treatment system that selects for distinct polyphosphate accumulating organisms. Community genomic data from " Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis" dominated activated sludge has enabled high mass-accuracy shotgun proteomics for identification of key metabolic pathways. Comprehensive genome-wide alignment of orthologous proteins suggests distinct partitioning of protein variants involved in both core-metabolism and specific metabolic pathways among the dominant population and closely related species. In addition, strain- resolved proteogenomic analysis of the AMD biofilms also highlights the importance of strain heterogeneity for the maintenance of community structure and function. These findings explain the importance of genetic diversity in facilitating the stable performance of complex microbial processes. Furthermore, although very different in terms of habitat, both microbial communities exhibit distinct functional compartmentalization and demonstrate its role in sustaining microbial community structure.
DE: 0410 Biodiversity
DE: 0439 Ecosystems, structure and dynamics (4815)
DE: 0448 Geomicrobiology
DE: 0465 Microbiology: ecology, physiology and genomics (4840)
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting