Isolation of Thermophilic Fungi from Self-Heated, Industrial Wood Chip Piles

Tansey, Michael R.

doi:10.2307/3757550

Cited by 37 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…Chaetomium thermophilum is a widely distributed soil-inhabiting fungus and a thermophile in accordance with its lifestyle in self-heating composting plant material [6]. It can also be found in composting urban solid waste [7,8] and wood-chip piles [9,10]. C. thermophilum is a member of the large genus of Chaetomium , also within the Sordariomycetes, that are found in soil, air, and plant debris [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consistent mutational paths predict eukaryotic thermostability

et al. 2013

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BackgroundProteomes of thermophilic prokaryotes have been instrumental in structural biology and successfully exploited in biotechnology, however many proteins required for eukaryotic cell function are absent from bacteria or archaea. With Chaetomium thermophilum, Thielavia terrestris and Thielavia heterothallica three genome sequences of thermophilic eukaryotes have been published.ResultsStudying the genomes and proteomes of these thermophilic fungi, we found common strategies of thermal adaptation across the different kingdoms of Life, including amino acid biases and a reduced genome size. A phylogenetics-guided comparison of thermophilic proteomes with those of other, mesophilic Sordariomycetes revealed consistent amino acid substitutions associated to thermophily that were also present in an independent lineage of thermophilic fungi. The most consistent pattern is the substitution of lysine by arginine, which we could find in almost all lineages but has not been extensively used in protein stability engineering. By exploiting mutational paths towards the thermophiles, we could predict particular amino acid residues in individual proteins that contribute to thermostability and validated some of them experimentally. By determining the three-dimensional structure of an exemplar protein from C. thermophilum (Arx1), we could also characterise the molecular consequences of some of these mutations.ConclusionsThe comparative analysis of these three genomes not only enhances our understanding of the evolution of thermophily, but also provides new ways to engineer protein stability.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consistent mutational paths predict eukaryotic thermostability

et al. 2013

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“…Ecological distribution. A. fumigatus has been found frequently in composting vegetative material (7,17,21,39), self-heating woodchip piles (5,18,44), municipal refuse compost (30,32,43), refuse-sludge compost (32), moldy hay (24), and sewage (12,14,15). Unlike truly thermophilic fungi, which cannot grow below 200C (16), A. funigatus grows over a range of below 20 to about 500C (16).…”

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Occurrence of Aspergillus fumigatus during composting of sewage sludge

Millner¹,

Marsh²,

Snowden³

et al. 1977

Appl Environ Microbiol

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Aspergillus fumigatus, a medicaRly important fungal opportunist and respiratory allergen, was isolated from woodchips and sewage sludge used in the production of compost at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's composting research facility in Beltsville, Md. It was also regularly isolated as a dominant fungus during forced aeration composting and after 30 days in an unaerated stationary curing pile; in both cases, the fungus was found in pile zones with temperatures less than 60°C. Compost stored outdoors in stationary unaerated piles from 1 to 4 months after screening out of woodchips contained easily detectable amounts of A. fumigatus in the exterior pile zones (0to 25-cm depths). Semiquantitative studies of the airspora at the composting site revealed that A. fumigatus constituted 75% of the total viable mycoflora captured. At locations 320 m to 8 km from the compost site, the fungus constituted only 2% of the total viable mycoflora in the air. Of 21 samples of commercially available potting soil, one had levels of A. fumigatus nearly equivalent to those of 1month-old storage compost; 15 others had lower but detectable levels. Sewage sludge disposal is an immediate and growing problem for many U.S. municipalities. Composting, one of the altemative disposal/utilization options available, has been investigated from engineering, economic, bacteriological, and viral aspects (6, 11, 20, 48). The agronomic characteristics of the compost have also been evaluated (19). One aspect which has not been investigated thoroughly and evaluated with a view toward health safety is the fungal flora which develops during composting. Aspergillus fumigatus Fres. is one of the relatively few fungi which are known to infect hulmans. Records of its ecological distribution and pathogenicity, which follow below, suggested that the fungus might proliferate during composting and thereby pose a health problem for certain individuals.

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“…276 cited as one of the chief obstacles to microbiological conversion (4). Tansey (13,14) showed that cellulolytic activity of a number of thermophilic species was several times that of the most active cellulolytic mesophiles known. The studies reported here were concerned with optimizing the growth conditions for three highly cellulolytic thermophiles.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…coprophile QM-9381, Sporotrichum thermophile QM-9382, and Thermoascus aurantiacus QM-9383. These organisms have been reported (13,14) to be two to three times as active in hydrolyzing cellulose as one of the most vigorously cellulolytic mesophiles, Trichoderma viride QM-6a, which was isolated and studied by Mandels and Weber (10). They were obtained from the Mycology Group of the United States Army Natick Laboratories, Natick, Mass.…”

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Studies on Thermophilic Cellulolytic Fungi

Romanelli

Houston

Barnett

1975

Applied Microbiology

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Three thermophilic cellulolytic fungi, Chaetomium thermophile var. coprophile, Sporotrichum thermophile, and Thermoascus aurantiacus were studied to determine the conditions for a high rate of cellulose degradation. The range of temperature over which good growth occurred was determined first in a temperature gradient incubator; the optimum temperature was then established in shake flask cultures. T. aurantiacus had the highest optimum growth temperature range (46 to 51 C), whereas S. thermophile had the broadest range over which good growth occurred (36 to 43 C). Optimum temperatures for the three organisms, T. aurantiacus, S. Thermophile, and C. thermophile were 48, 40, and 40 C, respectively. It was found that the addition of an organic carbon and nitrogen source to a cellulose mineral solution medium markedly increased the rate of cellulose degradation. The surfactant, Tween 80, which has been reported to be of value in the production and recovery of the enzyme, cellulase, was shown to be detrimental to the degradation of cellulose in culture. In the medium used, S. thermophile gave the highest rate of substrate utilization; 56% of the cellulose was hydrolyzed in 72 h. The average degree of polymerization of cellulose decreased from 745 to 575.

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Isolation of Thermophilic Fungi from Self-Heated, Industrial Wood Chip Piles

Cited by 37 publications

References 5 publications

Consistent mutational paths predict eukaryotic thermostability

Consistent mutational paths predict eukaryotic thermostability

Occurrence of Aspergillus fumigatus during composting of sewage sludge

Studies on Thermophilic Cellulolytic Fungi

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