ALBERT

Description: Deep subsurface sediments from the Nankai Trough, Japan Sea, ODP Leg 190, sites 1173, 1174, 1177, and near-surface sediments from Hydrate Ridge, NE-Pacific have been analysed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)–electrospray ionisation (ESI)-mass spectrometry (MS). The main objective was to utilize the presence of intact phospholipids as a direct indicator of viable microorganisms. The extracts of Nankai Trough sediments were found to contain a variety of phospholipid (PL) structures, well-known to stem from microorganisms, to depths as great as 745 mbsf and in situ temperatures as high as 85 °C. In addition, high relative amounts of lysophospholipids (e.g. lysophosphatidylcholines) exceeding those of the regular phospholipids were detected. Diglyceride mass fragments of various PLs have been assigned to fatty acyl side-chains of typical chain length (C14, C16, C18, C20) and degree of unsaturation (zero, one or two double bonds). Similar results were obtained for the phospholipid distribution in extracts of organic matter-rich Hydrate Ridge sediments. To date, the enhanced occurrence of lysophospholipids cannot be explained completely but a response to increasing thermal and ecological stress seems probable.

Description: Earth's largest reactive carbon pool, marine sedimentary organic matter, becomes increasingly recalcitrant during burial, making it almost inaccessible as a substrate for microorganisms, and thereby limiting metabolic activity in the deep biosphere. Because elevated temperature acting over geological time leads to the massive thermal breakdown of the organic matter into volatiles, including petroleum, the question arises whether microorganisms can directly utilize these maturation products as a substrate. While migrated thermogenic fluids are known to sustain microbial consortia in shallow sediments, an in situ coupling of abiotic generation and microbial utilization has not been demonstrated. Here we show, using a combination of basin modelling, kinetic modelling, geomicrobiology and biogeochemistry, that microorganisms inhabit the active generation zone in the Nankai Trough, offshore Japan. Three sites from ODP Leg 190 have been evaluated, namely 1173, 1174 and 1177, drilled in nearly undeformed Quaternary and Tertiary sedimentary sequences seaward of the Nankai Trough itself. Paleotemperatures were reconstructed based on subsidence profiles, compaction modelling, present-day heat flow, downhole temperature measurements and organic maturity parameters. Today's heat flow distribution can be considered mainly conductive, and is extremely high in places, reaching 180 mW/m**2. The kinetic parameters describing total hydrocarbon generation, determined by laboratory pyrolysis experiments, were utilized by the model in order to predict the timing of generation in time and space. The model predicts that the onset of present day generation lies between 300 and 500 m below sea floor (5100-5300 m below mean sea level), depending on well location. In the case of Site 1174, 5-10% conversion has taken place by a present day temperature of ca. 85 °C. Predictions were largely validated by on-site hydrocarbon gas measurements. Viable organisms in the same depth range have been proven using 14C-radiolabelled substrates for methanogenesis, bacterial cell counts and intact phospholipids. Altogether, these results point to an overlap of abiotic thermal degradation reactions going on in the same part of the sedimentary column as where a deep biosphere exists. The organic matter preserved in Nankai Trough sediments is of the type that generates putative feedstocks for microbial activity, namely oxygenated compounds and hydrocarbons. Furthermore, the rates of thermal degradation calculated from the kinetic model closely resemble rates of respiration and electron donor consumption independently measured in other deep biosphere environments. We deduce that abiotically driven degradation reactions have provided substrates for microbial activity in deep sediments at this convergent continental margin.

Description: © The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Zeiner, C. A., Purvine, S. O., Zink, E., Wu, S., Pasa-Tolic, L., Chaput, D. L., Santelli, C. M., & Hansel, C. M. Mechanisms of manganese(II) oxidation by filamentous ascomycete fungi vary with species and time as a function of secretome composition. Frontiers in Microbiology, 12, (2021): 610497, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.610497.

Description: Manganese (Mn) oxides are among the strongest oxidants and sorbents in the environment, and Mn(II) oxidation to Mn(III/IV) (hydr)oxides includes both abiotic and microbially-mediated processes. While white-rot Basidiomycete fungi oxidize Mn(II) using laccases and manganese peroxidases in association with lignocellulose degradation, the mechanisms by which filamentous Ascomycete fungi oxidize Mn(II) and a physiological role for Mn(II) oxidation in these organisms remain poorly understood. Here we use a combination of chemical and in-gel assays and bulk mass spectrometry to demonstrate secretome-based Mn(II) oxidation in three phylogenetically diverse Ascomycetes that is mechanistically distinct from hyphal-associated Mn(II) oxidation on solid substrates. We show that Mn(II) oxidative capacity of these fungi is dictated by species-specific secreted enzymes and varies with secretome age, and we reveal the presence of both Cu-based and FAD-based Mn(II) oxidation mechanisms in all 3 species, demonstrating mechanistic redundancy. Specifically, we identify candidate Mn(II)-oxidizing enzymes as tyrosinase and glyoxal oxidase in Stagonospora sp. SRC1lsM3a, bilirubin oxidase in Stagonospora sp. and Paraconiothyrium sporulosum AP3s5-JAC2a, and GMC oxidoreductase in all 3 species, including Pyrenochaeta sp. DS3sAY3a. The diversity of the candidate Mn(II)-oxidizing enzymes identified in this study suggests that the ability of fungal secretomes to oxidize Mn(II) may be more widespread than previously thought.

Description: This work was supported by the National Science Foundation, grant numbers EAR-1249489 and CBET-1336496, both awarded to CH, by a JGI-EMSL Collaborative Science Initiative grant (proposal number 48100) awarded to CH and CS, and by the University of St. Thomas. Personal support for CZ was also provided by Harvard University and by a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship administered by the National Academies. A portion of this research was performed under the Facilities Integrating Collaborations for User Science (FICUS) program and used resources at the DOE Joint Genome Institute and the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (grid.436923.9), which are DOE Office of Science User Facilities. Both facilities are sponsored by the Biological and Environmental Research Program and operated under Contract Nos. DE-AC02-05CH11231 (JGI) and DE-AC05-76RL01830 (EMSL). Part of this research was performed at the Bauer Core Facility of the FAS Center for Systems Biology at Harvard University. A portion of the bioinformatics analysis was performed at Harvard’s FAS Research Computing facility.