应用于沼气升级的应变解析宏基因组学方法。
Strain-resolved metagenomics approaches applied to biogas upgrading.
机构信息
Department of Biology, University of Padua, Via U. Bassi 58/b, 35131, Padova, Italy.
Department of Biology, University of Padua, Via U. Bassi 58/b, 35131, Padova, Italy.
出版信息
Environ Res. 2024 Jan 1;240(Pt 2):117414. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117414. Epub 2023 Oct 16.
Genetic heterogeneity is a common trait in microbial populations, caused by de novo mutations and changes in variant frequencies over time. Microbes can thus differ genetically within the same species and acquire different phenotypes. For instance, performance and stability of anaerobic reactors are linked to the composition of the microbiome involved in the digestion process and to the environmental parameters imposing selective pressure on the metagenome, shaping its evolution. Changes at the strain level have the potential to determine variations in microbial functions, and their characterization could provide new insight into ecological and evolutionary processes driving anaerobic digestion. In this work, single nucleotide variant dynamics were studied in two time-course biogas upgrading experiments, testing alternative carbon sources and the response to exogenous hydrogen addition. A cumulative total of 76,229 and 64,289 high-confidence single nucleotide variants were discerned in the experiments related to carbon substrate availability and hydrogen addition, respectively. By combining complementary bioinformatic approaches, the study reconstructed the precise strain count-two for both hydrogenotrophic archaea-and tracked their abundance over time, while also characterizing tens of genes under strong selection. Results in the dominant archaea revealed the presence of nearly 100 variants within genes encoding enzymes involved in hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis. In the bacterial counterparts, 119 mutations were identified across 23 genes associated with the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway, suggesting a possible impact on the syntrophic acetate-oxidation process. Strain replacement events took place in both experiments, confirming the trends suggested by the variants trajectories and providing a comprehensive understanding of the biogas upgrading microbiome at the strain level. Overall, this resolution level allowed us to reveal fine-scale evolutionary mechanisms, functional dynamics, and strain-level metabolic variation that could contribute to the selection of key species actively involved in the carbon dioxide fixation process.
遗传异质性是微生物群体中的一个常见特征,由新出现的突变和变体频率随时间的变化引起。因此,同一物种内的微生物在遗传上可能存在差异,并获得不同的表型。例如,厌氧反应器的性能和稳定性与参与消化过程的微生物组的组成以及对宏基因组施加选择压力的环境参数有关,从而塑造其进化。在菌株水平上的变化有可能决定微生物功能的变化,其特征描述可以为驱动厌氧消化的生态和进化过程提供新的见解。在这项工作中,在两个时间过程沼气升级实验中研究了单核苷酸变体动态,测试了替代碳源和对外源氢气添加的反应。在与碳源供应和氢气添加相关的实验中,总共确定了 76229 和 64289 个高置信度的单核苷酸变体。通过结合互补的生物信息学方法,该研究重建了精确的菌株计数——两种产氢古菌——并跟踪了它们随时间的丰度,同时还对强烈选择的数十个基因进行了特征描述。在优势古菌中的结果揭示了参与氢营养型甲烷生成的酶编码基因中存在近 100 个变体。在细菌对应物中,在与伍德-吕根达尔途径相关的 23 个基因中发现了 119 个突变,这表明可能对协同乙酸氧化过程有影响。在两个实验中都发生了菌株替换事件,这证实了变体轨迹所暗示的趋势,并提供了对沼气升级微生物组在菌株水平上的全面理解。总的来说,这种分辨率水平使我们能够揭示精细的进化机制、功能动态和菌株水平的代谢变化,这些变化可能有助于选择积极参与二氧化碳固定过程的关键物种。