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Published (Version of record)CC BY V4.0, Open Access
Published (Version of record)CC BY V4.0, Open
Journal article
Anaerobic oxidation of propane coupled to nitrate reduction by a lineage within the class Symbiobacteriia
Nature Communications, Vol.13(1), pp.1-12
17/10/2022
PMCID: PMC9576796
PMID: 36253480
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Source: InCites
Abstract
Anaerobic microorganisms are thought to play a critical role in regulating the flux of short-chain gaseous alkanes (SCGAs; including ethane, propane and butane) from terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems to the atmosphere. Sulfate has been confirmed to act as electron acceptor supporting microbial anaerobic oxidation of SCGAs, yet several other energetically more favourable acceptors co-exist with these gases in anaerobic environments. Here, we show that a bioreactor seeded with biomass from a wastewater treatment facility can perform anaerobic propane oxidation coupled to nitrate reduction to dinitrogen gas and ammonium. The bioreactor was operated for more than 1000 days, and we used 13C- and 15N-labelling experiments, metagenomic, metatranscriptomic, metaproteomic and metabolite analyses to characterize the microbial community and the metabolic processes. The data collectively suggest that a species representing a novel order within the bacterial class Symbiobacteriia is responsible for the observed nitrate-dependent propane oxidation. The closed genome of this organism, which we designate as ‘Candidatus Alkanivorans nitratireducens’, encodes pathways for oxidation of propane to CO2 via fumarate addition, and for nitrate reduction, with all the key genes expressed during nitrate-dependent propane oxidation. Our results suggest that nitrate is a relevant electron sink for SCGA oxidation in anaerobic environments, constituting a new microbially-mediated link between the carbon and nitrogen cycles.
Details
- Title
- Anaerobic oxidation of propane coupled to nitrate reduction by a lineage within the class Symbiobacteriia
- Creators
- Mengxiong Wu - St Lucia, QLD AustraliaJie Li - St Lucia, QLD AustraliaAndy O. Leu - Woolloongabba, QLD AustraliaDirk V. Erler - Southern Cross UniversityTerra Stark - St Lucia, QLD 4072 AustraliaGene W. Tyson - Woolloongabba, QLD AustraliaZhiguo Yuan - St Lucia, QLD AustraliaSimon J. McIlroy - Woolloongabba, QLD AustraliaJianhua Guo - St Lucia, QLD Australia
- Publication Details
- Nature Communications, Vol.13(1), pp.1-12
- Publisher
- Nature Publishing Group
- Grant note
- ;
- Identifiers
- 991013055017102368
- Copyright
- Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. © The Author(s) 2022
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Science and Engineering; Centre for Coastal Biogeochemistry; Science
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article