Search

Metarhizium robertsii DSM 1490 is a generalist entomopathogenic fungus. The mechanisms of pathogenesis of such fungi in insects like termites are not completely understood. Here, we report the draft genome sequence, as sequenced on the Oxford Nanopore platform. The genome has a GC% of 47.82 and a size of 45,688,865 bp.

The Gram-positive diazotrophic seed endophytic bacterium Arthrobacter sp. strain ATA002 was isolated from seeds of the endemic cactus Maihueniopsis domeykoensis collected in the Atacama Desert, Chile. Here, we present a circular genome sequence, obtained by Nanopore sequencing, with a size of 3,904,590 bp and a GC content of 65.9%.

As most eukaryotic genomes are yet to be sequenced, the mechanisms underlying their contribution to different ecosystem processes remain untapped. Although approaches to recovering Prokaryotic genomes have become common in genome biology, few studies have tackled the recovery of eukaryotic genomes from metagenomes. This study assessed the reconstruction of microbial eukaryotic genomes using 6000 metagenomes from terrestrial and some transition environments using the EukRep pipeline. Only 215 metagenomic libraries yielded eukaryotic bins. From a total of 447 eukaryotic bins recovered 197 were classified at the phylum level. Streptophytes and fungi were the most represented clades with 83 and 73 bins, respectively. More than 78% of the obtained eukaryotic bins were recovered from samples whose biomes were classified as host-associated, aquatic, and anthropogenic terrestrial. However, only 93 bins were taxonomically assigned at the genus level and 17 bins at the species level. Completeness and contamination estimates were obtained for a total of 193 bins and consisted of 44.64% (σ = 27.41%) and 3.97% (σ = 6.53%), respectively. Micromonas commoda was the most frequent taxon found while Saccharomyces cerevisiae presented the highest completeness, probably because more reference genomes are available. Current measures of completeness are based on the presence of single-copy genes. However, mapping of the contigs from the recovered eukaryotic bins to the chromosomes of the reference genomes showed many gaps, suggesting that completeness measures should also include chromosome coverage. Recovering eukaryotic genomes will benefit significantly from long-read sequencing, development of tools for dealing with repeat-rich genomes, and improved reference genomes databases.

A metagenome-assembled genome (MAG), named Methanosarcina sp. strain ERenArc_MAG2, was obtained from a 3-month-old H 2 /CO 2 atmosphere enrichment culture, originally inoculated with 60-m deep drill core sediment collected from the tectonic Eger Rift terrestrial subsurface. Annotation of the recovered draft genome revealed putative archaeal methanogenesis genes in the deep biosphere.

A metagenome-assembled genome (MAG), named

The Eger Rift subsurface is characterized by frequent seismic activity and consistently high CO2concentrations, making it a unique deep biosphere ecosystem and a suitable site to study the interactions between volcanism, tectonics, and microbiological activity. Pulses of geogenic H2during earthquakes may provide substrates for methanogenic and chemolithotrophic processes, but very little is currently known about the role of subsurface microorganisms and their cellular processes in this type of environment. To assess the impact of geologic activity on microbial life, we analyzed the geological, geochemical, and microbiological composition of rock and sediment samples from a 240 m deep drill core, running across six lithostratigraphic zones. In addition, we evaluated diversity as well as metabolic attributes of bacterial and archaeal communities. Our investigation revealed a distinct low biomass community, with a surprisingly diverse Archaea population, providing strong support that methanogenic archaea reside in the Eger subsurface. Geochemical analysis revealed sulfate and sodium concentrations as high as 1000 mg L−1in sediment samples from a depth between 50 and 100 m and in weathered rock samples collected below 200 m.Most microbial signatures could be assigned to common soil and water bacteria, which together with the occurrence of freshwater Cyanobacteria at specific depths, emphasize the heterogenous, groundwater movement driven nature of this terrestrial subsurface environment. Although not as frequently and abundantly as initially expected, our investigations also found evidence for anaerobic, autotrophic, and acidophilic communities in Eger Rift sediments, as sulfur cycling taxa likeThiohalophilusandDesulfosporosinuswere specifically enriched at depths below 100 m. The detection of methanogenic, halophilic, and ammonia oxidizing archaeal populations demonstrate that the unique features of the Eger Rift subsurface environment provide the foundation for diverse types of microbial life, including the microbial utilization of geologically derived CO2and when available H2, as a primary energy source.

A circular, single-contig Methanobacterium sp. metagenome-assembled genome (MAG) was recovered from high-CO 2 enrichments inoculated with drill core material from the tectonic Eger Rift terrestrial subsurface. Annotation of the recovered MAG highlighted putative methanogenesis genes, providing valuable information on archaeal activity in the deep biosphere.

A circular, single-contig

The Gram-positive bacterium Nocardioides alcanivorans NGK65

An estimated 8.7 million eukaryotic species exist on our planet. However, recent tools for taxonomic classification of eukaryotes only dispose of 734 reference genomes. As most Eukaryotic genomes are yet to be sequenced, the mechanisms underlying their contribution to different ecosystem processes remain untapped. Although approaches to recover Prokaryotic genomes have become common in genome biology, few studies have tackled the recovery of Eukaryotic genomes from metagenomes. This study assessed the reconstruction of Eukaryotic genomes using 215 metagenomes from diverse environments using the EukRep pipeline. We obtained 447 eukaryotic bins from 15 classes (e.g., Saccharomycetes, Sordariomycetes, and Mamiellophyceae) and 16 orders (e.g., Mamiellales, Saccharomycetales, and Hypocreales). More than 73% of the obtained eukaryotic bins were recovered from samples whose biomes were classified as host-associated, aquatic and anthropogenic terrestrial. However, only 93 bins showed taxonomic classification to (9 unique) genera and 17 bins to (6 unique) species. A total of 193 bins contained completeness and contamination measures. Average completeness and contamination were 44.64% (σ=27.41%) and 3.97% (σ=6.53%), respectively. Micromonas commoda was the most frequent taxa found while Saccharomyces cerevisiae presented the highest completeness, possibly resulting from a more significant number of reference genomes. However, mapping eukaryotic bins to the chromosomes of the reference genomes suggests that completeness measures should consider both single-copy genes and chromosome coverage. Recovering eukaryotic genomes will benefit significantly from long-read sequencing, intron removal after assembly, and improved reference genomes databases.

Background Metagenomics is an expanding field within microbial ecology, microbiology, and related disciplines. The number of metagenomes deposited in major public repositories such as Sequence Read Archive (SRA) and Metagenomic Rapid Annotations using Subsystems Technology (MG-RAST) is rising exponentially. However, data mining and interpretation can be challenging due to mis-annotated and misleading metadata entries. In this study, we describe the Marine Metagenome Metadata Database (MarineMetagenomeDB) to help researchers identify marine metagenomes of interest for re-analysis and meta-analysis. To this end, we have manually curated the associated metadata of several thousands of microbial metagenomes currently deposited at SRA and MG-RAST. Results In total, 125 terms were curated according to 17 different classes (e.g., biome, material, oceanic zone, geographic feature and oceanographic phenomena). Other standardized features include sample attributes (e.g., salinity, depth), sample location (e.g., latitude, longitude), and sequencing features (e.g., sequencing platform, sequence count). MarineMetagenomeDB version 1.0 contains 11,449 marine metagenomes from SRA and MG-RAST distributed across all oceans and several seas. Most samples were sequenced using Illumina sequencing technology (84.33%). More than 55% of the samples were collected from the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. About 40% of the samples had their biomes assigned as ‘ocean’. The ‘Quick Search’ and ‘Advanced Search’ tabs allow users to use different filters to select samples of interest dynamically in the web app. The interactive map allows the visualization of samples based on their location on the world map. The web app is also equipped with a novel download tool (on both Windows and Linux operating systems), that allows easy download of raw sequence data of selected samples from their respective repositories. As a use case, we demonstrated how to use the MarineMetagenomeDB web app to select estuarine metagenomes for potential large-scale microbial biogeography studies. Conclusion The MarineMetagenomeDB is a powerful resource for non-bioinformaticians to find marine metagenome samples with curated metadata and stimulate meta-studies involving marine microbiomes. Our user-friendly web app is publicly available at https://webapp.ufz.de/marmdb/.

The Gram-positive bacterium Nocardioides alcanivorans NGK65 T was isolated from plastic-polluted soil and cultivated on medium with polyethylene as the single carbon source. Nanopore sequencing revealed the presence of candidate enzymes for the biodegradation of polyethylene. Here, we report the draft genome of this newly described member of the terrestrial plastisphere.

Strain NGK65T, a novel hexadecane degrading, non-motile, Gram-positive, rod-to-coccus shaped, aerobic bacterium, was isolated from plastic polluted soil sampled at a landfill. Strain NGK65T hydrolysed casein, gelatin, urea and was catalase-positive. It optimally grew at 28 °C, in 0–1% NaCl and at pH 7.5–8.0. Glycerol, d-glucose, arbutin, aesculin, salicin, potassium 5-ketogluconate, sucrose, acetate, pyruvate and hexadecane were used as sole carbon sources. The predominant membrane fatty acids were iso-C16:0 followed by iso-C17:0 and C18:1 ω9c. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol and hydroxyphosphatidylinositol. The cell-wall peptidoglycan type was A3γ, with ll-diaminopimelic acid and glycine as the diagnostic amino acids. MK 8 (H4) was the predominant menaquinone. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain NGK65T belongs to the genus Nocardioides (phylum Actinobacteria ), appearing most closely related to Nocardioides daejeonensis MJ31T (98.6%) and Nocardioides dubius KSL-104T (98.3%). The genomic DNA G+C content of strain NGK65T was 68.2%. Strain NGK65T and the type strains of species involved in the analysis had average nucleotide identity values of 78.3–71.9% as well as digital DNA–DNA hybridization values between 22.5 and 19.7%, which clearly indicated that the isolate represents a novel species within the genus Nocardioides . Based on phenotypic and molecular characterization, strain NGK65T can clearly be differentiated from its phylogenetic neighbours to establish a novel species, for which the name Nocardioides alcanivorans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is NGK65T (=DSM 113112T=NCCB 100846T).

Emerging evidence places small proteins (≤ 50 amino acids) more centrally in physiological processes. Yet, the identification of functional small proteins and the systematic genome annotation of their cognate small open reading frames (smORFs) remains challenging both experimentally and computationally. Ribosome profiling or Ribo-Seq (that is a deep sequencing of ribosome-protected fragments) enables detecting of actively translated open-reading frames (ORFs) and empirical annotation of coding sequences (CDSs) using the in-register translation pattern that is characteristic for genuinely translating ribosomes. Multiple identifiers of ORFs that use 3-nt periodicity in Ribo-Seq data sets have been successful in eukaryotic smORF annotation. Yet, they have difficulties evaluating prokaryotic genomes due to the unique architecture of prokaryotic genomes (e.g. polycistronic messages, overlapping ORFs, leaderless translation, non-canonical initiation etc.). Here, we present our new algorithm, smORFer, which performs with high accuracy in prokaryotic organisms in detecting smORFs. The unique feature of smORFer is that it uses integrated approach and considers structural features of the genetic sequence along with in-register translation and uses Fourier transform to convert these parameters into a measurable score to faithfully select smORFs. The algorithm is executed in a modular way and dependent on the data available for a particular organism allows using different modules for smORF search.

Translation is a central biological process in living cells. Ribosome profiling approach enables assessing translation on a global, cell-wide level. Extracting versatile information from the ribosome profiling data usually requires specialized expertise for handling the sequencing data that is not available to the broad community of experimentalists. Here, we provide an easy-to-use and modifiable workflow that uses a small set of commands and enables full data analysis in a standardized way, including precise positioning of the ribosome-protected fragments, for determining codon-specific translation features. The workflow is complemented with simple step-by-step explanations and is accessible to scientists with no computational background.

Metagenomics became a standard strategy to comprehend the functional potential of microbial communities, including the human microbiome. Currently, the number of metagenomes in public repositories is increasing exponentially. The Sequence Read Archive (SRA) and the MG-RAST are the two main repositories for metagenomic data. These databases allow scientists to reanalyze samples and explore new hypotheses. However, mining samples from them can be a limiting factor, since the metadata available in these repositories is often misannotated, misleading, and decentralized, creating an overly complex environment for sample reanalysis. The main goal of the HumanMetagenomeDB is to simplify the identification and use of public human metagenomes of interest. HumanMetagenomeDB version 1.0 contains metadata of 69 822 metagenomes. We standardized 203 attributes, based on standardized ontologies, describing host characteristics (e.g. sex, age and body mass index), diagnosis information (e.g. cancer, Crohn's disease and Parkinson), location (e.g. country, longitude and latitude), sampling site (e.g. gut, lung and skin) and sequencing attributes (e.g. sequencing platform, average length and sequence quality). Further, HumanMetagenomeDB version 1.0 metagenomes encompass 58 countries, 9 main sample sites (i.e. body parts), 58 diagnoses and multiple ages, ranging from just born to 91 years old. The HumanMetagenomeDB is publicly available at https://webapp.ufz.de/hmgdb/.

ARGONAUTE-2 and associated miRNAs form the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC), which targets mRNAs for translational silencing and degradation as part of the RNA interference pathway. Despite the essential nature of this process for cellular function, there is little information on the role of RISC components in human development and organ function. We identify 13 heterozygous mutations in AGO2 in 21 patients affected by disturbances in neurological development. Each of the identified single amino acid mutations result in impaired shRNA-mediated silencing. We observe either impaired RISC formation or increased binding of AGO2 to mRNA targets as mutation specific functional consequences. The latter is supported by decreased phosphorylation of a C-terminal serine cluster involved in mRNA target release, increased formation of dendritic P-bodies in neurons and global transcriptome alterations in patient-derived primary fibroblasts. Our data emphasize the importance of gene expression regulation through the dynamic AGO2-RNA association for human neuronal development., AGO2 binds to miRNAs to repress expression of cognate target mRNAs. Here the authors report that heterozygous AGO2 mutations result in defects in neurological development and impair RNA interference.

Summary Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a mild to moderate respiratory tract infection, however, a subset of patients progresses to severe disease and respiratory failure. The mechanism of protective immunity in mild forms and the pathogenesis of severe COVID-19, associated with increased neutrophil counts and dysregulated immune responses, remains unclear. In a dual-center, two-cohort study, we combined single-cell RNA-sequencing and single-cell proteomics of whole blood and peripheral blood mononuclear cells to determine changes in immune cell composition and activation in mild vs. severe COVID-19 (242 samples from 109 individuals) over time. HLA-DRhiCD11chi inflammatory monocytes with an interferon-stimulated gene signature were elevated in mild COVID-19. Severe COVID-19 was marked by occurrence of neutrophil precursors, as evidence of emergency myelopoiesis, dysfunctional mature neutrophils, and HLA-DRlo monocytes. Our study provides detailed insights into the systemic immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and it reveals profound alterations in the myeloid cell compartment associated with severe COVID-19., Highlights ● SARS-CoV-2 infection induces profound alterations of the myeloid compartment ● Mild COVID-19 is marked by inflammatory HLA-DRhiCD11chi CD14+ monocytes ● Dysfunctional HLA-DRloCD163hi and HLA-DRloS100Ahi CD14+ monocytes in severe COVID-19 ● Emergency myelopoiesis with immature and dysfunctional neutrophils in severe COVID-19

The concept of a ‘plastisphere microbial community’ arose from research on aquatic plastic debris, while the effect of plastics on microbial communities in soils remains poorly understood. Therefore, we examined the inhabiting microbial communities of two plastic debris ecosystems with regard to their diversity and composition relative to plastic-free soils from the same area using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Furthermore, we studied the plastic-colonizing potential of bacteria originating from both study sites as a measure of surface adhesion to UV-weathered polyethylene (PE) using high-magnification field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The high plastic content of the soils was associated with a reduced alpha diversity and a significantly different structure of the microbial communities. The presence of plastic debris in soils did not specifically enrich bacteria known to degrade plastic, as suggested by earlier studies, but rather shifted the microbial community towards highly abundant autotrophic bacteria potentially tolerant to hydrophobic environments and known to be important for biocrust formation. The bacterial inoculates from both sites formed dense biofilms on the surface and in micrometer-scale surface cracks of the UV-weathered PE chips after 100 days of in vitro incubation with visible threadlike EPS structures and cross-connections enabling surface adhesion. High-resolution FESEM imaging further indicates that the microbial colonization catalyzed some of the surface degradation of PE. In essence, this study suggests the concept of a ‘terrestrial plastisphere’ as a diverse consortium of microorganisms including autotrophs and other pioneering species paving the way for those members of the consortium that may eventually break down the plastic compounds.

The development of coastal vermetid reefs and rocky shores depends on the activity of several reef builders, including red crustose coralline algae (CCA) such as Neogoniolithon sp. To initiate studies on the interaction between Neogoniolithon sp. and its associated bacteria, and their impact on the algae physiological performance, we characterized the bacterial community by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. These were extracted from the algal tissue and adjacent waters along two sampling campaigns (during winter and spring), in three study regions along a reef in the east Mediterranean Israeli coast and from laboratory-grown algae. The analysis revealed that aquaria and field communities differ substantially, suggesting that future research on Neogoniolithon sp. interaction with its microbiome must rest on aquaria that closely simulate coastal conditions. Some prokaryote classes found associated with the alga tissue were hardly detected or absent from surrounding water. Further, bacterial populations differed between sampling campaigns. One example is the presence of anaerobic bacteria and archaea families in one of the campaigns, correlating with the weaker turbulence in the spring season, probably leading to the development of local anoxic conditions. A better understanding of reef-building activity of CCA and their associated bacteria is necessary for assessment of their resilience to climate change and may support coastal preservation efforts.

Temporal resolution of cellular features associated with a severe COVID-19 disease trajectory is required for understanding skewed immune responses and finding outcome predictors. Here, we performed a longitudinal multi-omics study using a two-centre cohort of 14 patients. We analysed the bulk transcriptome, bulk DNA methylome, and single-cell transcriptome (>358,000 cells, including BCR profiles) of peripheral blood samples harvested from up to 5 time points. Validation was performed in two independent cohorts of COVID-19 patients. Severe COVID-19 was characterized by an increase of proliferating, metabolically hyperactive plasmablasts. Coinciding with critical illness, we also identified an expansion of IFN-activated circulating megakaryocytes and increased erythropoiesis with features of hypoxic signalling. Megakaryocyte- and erythroid cell-derived co-expression modules were predictive of fatal disease outcome. The study demonstrates broad cellular effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection beyond classical immune cells and may serve as an entry point to develop biomarkers and targeted treatments of patients with COVID-19., Graphical Abstract, Highlights • SARS-CoV2 infection elicits dynamic changes of circulating cells in the blood • Severe COVID-19 is characterized by increased metabolically active plasmablasts • Elevation of IFN-activated megakaryocytes and erythroid cells in severe COVID-19 • Cell-type specific expression signatures are associated with a fatal COVID-19 outcome, Bernardes et al. explore COVID-19 disease trajectories by performing longitudinal multi-omics analyses in peripheral blood samples from hospitalized patients. The analyses identify increased numbers of plasmablasts, interferon-activated megakaryocytes and erythroid cells as hallmarks of severe disease, and define molecular signatures linked to a fatal COVID-19 disease outcome.

Translation is a central cellular process and is optimized for speed and fidelity. The speed of translation of a single codon depends on the concentration of aminoacyl-tRNAs. Here, we used microarray-based approaches to analyze the charging levels of tRNAs in Escherichia coli growing at different growth rates. Strikingly, we observed a non-uniform aminoacylation of tRNAs in complex media. In contrast, in minimal medium, the level of aminoacyl-tRNAs is more uniform and rises to approximately 60%. Particularly, the charging level of tRNA(Ser), tRNA(Cys), tRNA(Thr) and tRNA(His) is below 50% in complex medium and their aminoacylation levels mirror the degree that amino acids inhibit growth when individually added to minimal medium. Serine is among the most toxic amino acids for bacteria and tRNAs(Ser) exhibit the lowest charging levels, below 10%, at high growth rate although intracellular serine concentration is plentiful. As a result some serine codons are among the most slowly translated codons. A large fraction of the serine is most likely degraded by L-serine-deaminase, which competes with the seryl-tRNA-synthetase that charges the tRNAs(Ser) These results indicate that the level of aminoacylation in complex media might be a competition between charging for translation and degradation of amino acids that inhibit growth.

Environmental stress is detrimental to cell viability and requires an adequate reprogramming of cellular activities to maximize cell survival. We present a global analysis of the response of Escherichia coli to acute heat and osmotic stress. We combine deep sequencing of total mRNA and ribosome-protected fragments to provide a genome-wide map of the stress response at transcriptional and translational levels. For each type of stress, we observe a unique subset of genes that shape the stress-specific response. Upon temperature upshift, mRNAs with reduced folding stability up- and downstream of the start codon, and thus with more accessible initiation regions, are translationally favoured. Conversely, osmotic upshift causes a global reduction of highly translated transcripts with high copy numbers, allowing reallocation of translation resources to not degraded and newly synthesized mRNAs.

Messenger RNA acts as an informational molecule between DNA and translating ribosomes. Emerging evidence places mRNA in central cellular processes beyond its major function as informational entity. Although individual examples show that specific structural features of mRNA regulate translation and transcript stability, their role and function throughout the bacterial transcriptome remains unknown. Combining three sequencing approaches to provide a high resolution view of global mRNA secondary structure, translation efficiency and mRNA abundance, we unraveled structural features in E. coli mRNA with implications in translation and mRNA degradation. A poorly structured site upstream of the coding sequence serves as an additional unspecific binding site of the ribosomes and the degree of its secondary structure propensity negatively correlates with gene expression. Secondary structures within coding sequences are highly dynamic and influence translation only within a very small subset of positions. A secondary structure upstream of the stop codon is enriched in genes terminated by UAA codon with likely implications in translation termination. The global analysis further substantiates a common recognition signature of RNase E to initiate endonucleolytic cleavage. This work determines for the first time the E. coli RNA structurome, highlighting the contribution of mRNA secondary structure as a direct effector of a variety of processes, including translation and mRNA degradation., Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe, 520

Ribosome profiling is a new emerging technology that uses massively parallel amplification of ribosome-protected fragments and next-generation sequencing to monitor translation in vivo with codon resolution. Studies using this approach provide insightful views on the regulation of translation on a global cell-wide level. In this review, we compare different experimental set-ups and current protocols for sequencing data analysis. Specifically, we review the pitfalls at some experimental steps and highlight the importance of standardized protocol for sample preparation and data processing pipeline, at least for mapping and normalization.