No abstract

“Candidatus Nitrosocaldaceae” are globally distributed in neutral or slightly alkaline hot springs and geothermally heated soils. Despite their essential role in the nitrogen cycle in high-temperature ecosystems, they remain poorly understood because they have never been isolated in pure culture, and very few genomes are available. In the present study, a metagenomics approach was employed to obtain “Ca. Nitrosocaldaceae” metagenomic-assembled genomes (MAGs) from hot spring samples collected from India and China. Phylogenomic analysis placed these MAGs within “Ca. Nitrosocaldaceae.” Average nucleotide identity and average amino acid identity analysis suggested the new MAGs represent two novel species of “Candidatus Nitrosocaldus” and a novel genus, herein proposed as “Candidatus Nitrosothermus.” Key genes responsible for chemolithotrophic ammonia oxidation and a thaumarchaeal 3HP/4HB cycle were detected in all MAGs. Furthermore, genes coding for urea degradation were only present in “Ca. Nitrosocaldus,” while biosynthesis of the vitamins, biotin, cobalamin, and riboflavin were detected in almost all MAGs. Comparison of “Ca. Nitrosocaldales/Nitrosocaldaceae” with other AOA revealed 526 specific orthogroups. This included genes related to thermal adaptation (cyclic 2,3-diphosphoglycerate, and S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase), indicating their importance for life at high temperature. In addition, these MAGs acquired genes from members from archaea (Crenarchaeota) and bacteria (Firmicutes), mainly involved in metabolism and stress responses, which might play a role to allow this group to adapt to thermal habitats.

Conventional atmospheric glycerol organosolv pretreatment is energy-intensive with the requirement of long time and/or high temperature. Herein, acid-catalyzed atmospheric glycerol organosolv (ac-AGO) pretreatment was developed under a mild condition to modify the sugarcane bagasse structure for improving enzymatic hydrolyzability. Using single factor and central composite design experiments, ac-AGO pretreatment was optimized at 200 °C for 15 min with 0.06% H2SO4 addition, wherein the hemicellulose and lignin removal rates were 82 and 52%, respectively, with extremely high cellulose retention of 98%. The ac-AGO-pretreated substrate exhibited good enzymatic hydrolyzability at a modest cellulase loading, affording a 70% glucose yield after 72 h. Multiple analysis tools were used to correlate the hydrolyzability of the substrate with its structural features. The results indicated that the mild ac-AGO pretreatment can modify the lignocellulosic biomass structure to achieve good hydrolyzability, mainly resulting in significant hemicellulose removal.

No abstract

Glucose and xylose are the major hydrolysates of lignocellulose, and therefore, it is of great implication to identify the microbes involved in simultaneous utilization of glucose and xylose. In this study, the strain ZZ-46 isolated from the soil of Nanyang, China, could simultaneously assimilate glucose and xylose efficiently to produce lipid. Upon cultivation with a 2:1 glucose/xylose mixture as the carbon source for 144 h, the cell biomass, lipid concentration, lipid content, and lipid yield of ZZ-46 reached 19.85 ± 0.39 g/L, 9.53 ± 0.60 g/L, 48.05 ± 3.51%, and 0.142 ± 0.003 g/g sugar, respectively. Moreover, C16 and C18 fatty acids were the main constituents of lipid produced by ZZ-46. In addition, ZZ-46 was identified as Cutaneotrichosporon dermatis by the morphology features and phylogenetic analyses. The strain ZZ-46 would have good perspective in practical application for converting lignocellulose into microbial lipid.