. 24/7 Space News .
EXO LIFE
New bacteria groups, and stunning diversity, discovered underground
by Staff Writers
Berkeley CA (SPX) Oct 25, 2016


All the known major bacterial groups are represented by wedges in this circular 'tree of life.' The bigger wedges are more diverse groups. Green wedges are groups that have not been genomically sampled at the Rifle site --everything else has. Black wedges are previously identified bacteria groups that have also been found at Rifle. Purple wedges are groups discovered at Rifle and announced last year. Red wedges are new groups discovered in this study. Colored dots represent important metabolic processes the new groups help mediate. Image courtesy Banfield Group. For a larger version of this image please go here.

One of the most detailed genomic studies of any ecosystem to date has revealed an underground world of stunning microbial diversity, and added dozens of new branches to the tree of life.

The bacterial bonanza comes from scientists who reconstructed the genomes of more than 2,500 microbes from sediment and groundwater samples collected at an aquifer in Colorado. The effort was led by researchers from the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley. DNA sequencing was performed at the Joint Genome Institute, a DOE Office of Science User Facility.

As reported online October 24 in the journal Nature Communications, the scientists netted genomes from 80 percent of all known bacterial phyla, a remarkable degree of biological diversity at one location. They also discovered 47 new phylum-level bacterial groups, naming many of them after influential microbiologists and other scientists. And they learned new insights about how microbial communities work together to drive processes that are critical to the planet's climate and life everywhere, such as the carbon and nitrogen cycles.

These findings shed light on one of Earth's most important and least understood realms of life. The subterranean world hosts up to one-fifth of all biomass, but it remains a mystery.

"We didn't expect to find this incredible microbial diversity. But then again, we know little about the roles of subsurface microbes in biogeochemical processes, and more broadly, we don't really know what's down there," says Jill Banfield, a Senior Faculty Scientist in Berkeley Lab's Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division and a UC Berkeley professor in the departments of Earth and Planetary Science, and Environmental Science, Policy, and Management.

UC Berkeley's Karthik Anantharaman, the first author of the paper, adds, "To better understand what subsurface microbes are up to, our approach is to access their entire genomes. This enabled us to discover a greater interdependency among microbes than we've seen before."

The research is part of a Berkeley Lab-led project called Sustainable Systems Scientific Focus Area 2.0, which is developing a predictive understanding of terrestrial environments from the genome to the watershed scale. The project's field research takes place at a research site near the town of Rifle, Colorado, where for the past several years scientists have conducted experiments designed to stimulate populations of subterranean microbes that are naturally present in very low numbers.

The scientists sent soil and water samples from these experiments to the Joint Genome Institute for terabase-scale metagenomic sequencing. This high-throughput method isolates and purifies DNA from environmental samples, and then sequences one trillion base pairs of DNA at a time. Next, the scientists used bioinformatics tools developed in Banfield's lab to analyze the data.

Their approach has redrawn the tree of life. Between the 47 new bacterial groups reported in this work, and 35 new groups published last year (also found at the Rifle site), Banfield's team has doubled the number of known bacterial groups.

With discovery comes naming rights. The scientists named many of the new bacteria groups after Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley researchers. For example, there's Candidatus Andersenbacteria, after phylochip inventor Gary Andersen, and there's Candidatus Doudnabacteria, after CRISPR genome-editing pioneer Jennifer Doudna. "Berkeley now dominates the tree of life as it does the periodic table," Banfield says, in a nod to the sixteen elements discovered at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley.

Another big outcome is a deeper understanding of the roles subsurface microbes play in globally important carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulfur cycles. This information will help to better represent these cycles in predictive models such as climate simulations.

The scientists conducted metabolic analyses of 36 percent of the organisms detected in the aquifer system. They focused on a phenomenon called metabolic handoff, which essentially means one microbe's waste is another microbe's food. It's known from lab studies that handoffs are needed in certain reactions, but these interconnected networks are widespread and vastly more complex in the real world.

To understand why it's important to represent metabolic handoffs as accurately as possible in models, consider nitrate, a groundwater contaminant from fertilizers. Subsurface microbes are the primary driver in reducing nitrate to harmless nitrogen gas. There are four steps in this denitrification process, and the third step creates nitrous oxide--one of the most potent greenhouse gases. The process breaks down if microbes that carry out the fourth step are inactive when a pulse of nitrate enters the system.

"If microbes aren't there to accept the nitrous oxide handoff, then the greenhouse gas escapes into the atmosphere," says Anantharaman.

The scientists found the carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulfur cycles are all driven by metabolic handoffs that require an unexpectedly high degree of interdependence among microbes. The vast majority of microorganisms can't fully reduce a compound on their own. It takes a team. There are also backup microbes ready to perform a handoff if first-string microbes are unavailable.

"The combination of high microbial diversity and interconnections through metabolic handoffs likely results in high ecosystem resilience," says Banfield.

Other co-authors of the paper include Berkeley Lab's Eoin Brodie, Susan Hubbard, Ulas Karaoz, and Kenneth Williams; and UC Berkeley's Chris Brown, Cindy Castelle, Laura Hug, Alexander Probst, Itai Sharon, Andrea Singh, and Brian Thomas. The research is supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Science.


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


.


Related Links
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Life Beyond Earth
Lands Beyond Beyond - extra solar planets - news and science






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle

Previous Report
EXO LIFE
New species of extremely leggy millipede discovered in a cave in California
Washington DC (SPX) Oct 25, 2016
Along with many spiders, pseudoscorpions, and flies discovered and catalogued by the cave explorers, a tiny threadlike millipede was found in the unexplored dark marble caves in Sequoia National Park. The enigmatic millipede was sent to diplopodologists (scientists who specialize in the study of millipedes) Bill Shear and Paul Marek, who immediately recognized its significance as evolution ... read more


EXO LIFE
Russia to Allocate $1.5Bln to Federal Space Program in 2017 - Draft Budget Plan

US, Russian, Japanese astronauts return from ISS

New lettuce crop begins growing aboard ISS

Reaching for the stars: Latin America's emerging space powers

EXO LIFE
SpaceX zeroes in on helium containers for rocket explosion

SpaceX Aims to Resume Falcon 9 Flights in 2016, Blames Helium Tank for Explosion

Proven engine packs big, in-space punch for Space Launch System

Boosting Europe's all-electric satellites

EXO LIFE
Detailed images of Schiaparelli and its descent hardware on Mars

Cursed not, Difficult yes

Did it crash or land? Search on for Europe's Mars craft

Rover Conducting Science Investigations at 'Spirit Mount'

EXO LIFE
US, China hold second meeting on advancing space cooperation

China to enhance space capabilities with launch of Shenzhou-11

Ambitious space satellite projects set for liftoff

China's permanent station plans ride on mission

EXO LIFE
Airbus DS contracts with Intelsat General for European Defence Communications

Final exams prepare Thomas Pesquet for launch

Airbus DS in partnership with Orbital ATK to build EUTELSAT 5 West B

Third party satellite launch order bookings for Isro stands at $42 million

EXO LIFE
You can now print your own 3D model of the universe

Spacecraft operation for the next generation

Terma radar for Royal Malaysian Navy

Space-based droplet dynamics lessons

EXO LIFE
Preferentially Earth-sized Planets with Lots of Water

Potential new hunting ground for exoplanets discovered

Cloudy Nights, Sunny Days on Distant Hot Jupiters

Discovery of binary-binary calls solar system formation into question

EXO LIFE
Last Bits of 2015 Pluto Flyby Data Received on Earth

Uranus may have two undiscovered moons

Possible Clouds on Pluto, Next Target is Reddish

Curious tilt of the Sun traced to undiscovered planet









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.