Enhancing Microbial Pollutant Degradation by Integrating Eco-Evolutionary Principles with Environmental Biotechnology

Borchert, Erik; Hammerschmidt, Katrin; Hentschel, Ute; Deines, Peter

doi:10.1016/j.tim.2021.03.002

Cited by 65 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 74 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…From the perspectives of microbiome engineering, this study demonstrates the importance of the microbiome's preexposure history in the design of long-term experiments that include artificial selection to direct the evolution [76,79] of a target microbiome highly optimized for pollutant removal in an aquatic environment. Community succession accelerates at phase 2 such that multiple equilibria occur at phase 3.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Repeated introduction of micropollutants enhances microbial succession despite stable degradation patterns

Shen

Luo

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The high-volume release of micropollutants into natural surface waters has raised concern due to their environmental accumulation. Persisting micropollutants can impact multiple generations of organisms via press disturbances, but their microbially-mediated degradation and the influence on community assembly remain understudied. Here, freshwater microbial communities in microcosms were treated with four common micropollutants, alone or in combination, and then transferred in stages to fresh medium containing the same level of micropollutants to mimic the recurrent exposure of microbes under environmentally relevant conditions. Our results showed that the degradation of micropollutants was closely linked to the community succession, and that recurrent exposure to micropollutants enhanced the degradation capacity. The partitioning analysis of ecological processes revealed that community assembly was dominated by stochastic processes during early exposure, via random community changes, and by deterministic processes later in the exposure. Analyzing individual taxa abundances over time revealed two distinct bacterial responses, in which a larger proportion of sensitive than tolerant taxa was present in the disturbed communities, and the abundances of the most sensitive taxa were significantly associated with micropollutant degradation. This study clearly showed that microbial communities are generally vulnerable to persisting micropollutants in aquatic environments, which has important implications for pollution management, especially regarding microbial dynamics and ecosystem functioning in micropollutant removal.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Repeated introduction of micropollutants enhances microbial succession despite stable degradation patterns

Shen

Luo

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The enhanced biotic associations and cooperation in the subsurface layer may be attributed to the dominance of denitrification processes, as denitrification is a multi-step process that involves multiple microbial cohorts to complete (Henry et al, 2005;Madsen, 2011;Yuan et al, 2021). The enhanced collaboration and deterministic succession had been reported in microbial community associated with the anoxic decomposition of microcystis biomass (Wu et al, 2019), and cross-feeding leads to enhanced positive interactions among the different members of the community (Borchert et al, 2021).…”

Section: Nitrogen Transformation Processes Mediate Biotic Interactions In Snowmentioning

confidence: 96%

Temporal variation in glacier snowpack bacterial communities mediated by nitrogen

Chen

Liu

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Global warming accelerates glacier melt, releasing stored carbon and nitrogen, which fertilize downstream ecosystems. Diverse and active microbial communities mediate biogeochemical cycles in snow and are vital to the glacial ecosystem. However, little is known about their temporal changing pattern and the environmental and biotic determinants in snowpacks. Here, we investigated the bacterial community in the surface and subsurface snow (depth at 0–15 and 15–30 cm, respectively) during a nine-day period in the Dunde Glacier of the Tibetan Plateau, based on Illumina MiSeq of 16S rRNA gene sequences. Our results revealed dynamic bacterial communities in both surface and surface snow, and nitrogen is the key determinant of bacterial diversity, composition, community structure, and biotic interactions. Nitrate and ammonium concentration increased and decreased in the surface and subsurface snow over time, therefore indicating accumulation and consumption processes, respectively. This is also evidenced by the dominance of organisms predicted to carry nitrogen fixation and denitrification genes in the surface and subsurface layers, respectively. The nitrogen limitation and the apparent dominance of the denitrification in the subsurface snow suggest stronger environmental and biotic filtering than those in the surface snow. This was associated with lower bacterial diversity, more pronounced community temporal changes, and stronger biotic interactions than in the surface snow. Collectively, these findings significantly advanced our understanding of microbial community variations and bacterial interactions after snow deposition, and revealed the dynamics of nitrogen metabolism in Tibetan snow.

show abstract

“…Indeed, many bacterial taxa have been identified that have significant pollutant degradation properties (Ojuederie and Babalola, 2017). As an alternative to contained bioreactor systems, creating stable synthetic ecologies and applying eco-evolutionary principles to enhance bioremediation is compatible with MIGI principles (Borchert et al, 2021).…”

Section: Bioremediationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbiome-Inspired Green Infrastructure (MIGI): A Bioscience Roadmap for Urban Ecosystem Health

Robinson¹,

Watkins²,

Man³

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Microbiome-Inspired Green Infrastructure (MIGI) was recently proposed as an integrative system to promote healthy urban ecosystems, through multidisciplinary design. Specifically, MIGI is defined as nature-centric infrastructure restored and/or designed and managed to enhance health-promoting interactions between humans and environmental microbiomes, whilst sustaining microbially-mediated ecosystem functionality and resilience. MIGI also aims to stimulate a research agenda that focuses on considerations for the importance of urban environmental microbiomes. Objectives: In this paper we provide details of what MIGI entails from a bioscience and biodesign perspective, highlighting the potential dual benefits for human and ecosystem health. We present ‘what is known’ about the relationship between urban microbiomes, green infrastructure and environmental factors that may affect urban ecosystem health (ecosystem functionality and resilience as well as human health). We discuss how to start operationalising the MIGI concept based on current available knowledge, and present a horizon scan of emerging and future considerations in research and practice. We conclude by highlighting challenges to the implementation of MIGI and propose a series of workshops to discuss multi-stakeholder needs and opportunities. Discussion: This article will enable urban landscape managers to incorporate initial considerations for the microbiome in their development projects to promote human and ecosystem health. However, overcoming the challenges to operationalising MIGI will be essential to furthering its practical development. Although the research is in its infancy, there is considerable potential for MIGI to help deliver sustainable urban development driven by considerations for reciprocal relations between humans and the foundations of our ecosystems –– the microorganisms.

show abstract

Enhancing Microbial Pollutant Degradation by Integrating Eco-Evolutionary Principles with Environmental Biotechnology

Cited by 65 publications

References 74 publications

Repeated introduction of micropollutants enhances microbial succession despite stable degradation patterns

Repeated introduction of micropollutants enhances microbial succession despite stable degradation patterns

Temporal variation in glacier snowpack bacterial communities mediated by nitrogen

Microbiome-Inspired Green Infrastructure (MIGI): A Bioscience Roadmap for Urban Ecosystem Health

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About