The evolution of nitrogen cycling

Mancinelli, Rocco L.; McKay, Christopher P.

doi:10.1007/bf01808213

Cited by 157 publications

(117 citation statements)

References 39 publications

(50 reference statements)

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“…The existence of thermophilic AOA is also consistent with the previously postulated idea that the mesophilic crenarchaeotes are descendants of ancestral thermophiles (53) and thus suggests that archaeal ammonia oxidation evolved under thermophilic conditions with the mesophilic lifestyles exemplified by soil or marine AOA likely representing independent, secondary adaptations to lower temperatures. Ammonia oxidation as an ancient form of energy conservation is consistent with the postulated early earth chemically driven nitrogen cycle (54), which provides for the formation of ammonia at high temperatures (24)(25)(26).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 53%

A moderately thermophilic ammonia-oxidizing crenarchaeote from a hot spring

Hatzenpichler¹,

Лебедева

Spieck

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

625

541

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The recent discovery of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) dramatically changed our perception of the diversity and evolutionary history of microbes involved in nitrification. In this study, a moderately thermophilic (46°C) ammonia-oxidizing enrichment culture, which had been seeded with biomass from a hot spring, was screened for ammonia oxidizers. Although gene sequences for crenarchaeotal 16S rRNA and two subunits of the ammonia monooxygenase (amoA and amoB) were detected via PCR, no hints for known ammonia-oxidizing bacteria were obtained. Comparative sequence analyses of these gene fragments demonstrated the presence of a single operational taxonomic unit and thus enabled the assignment of the amoA and amoB sequences to the respective 16S rRNA phylotype, which belongs to the widely distributed group I.1b (soil group) of the Crenarchaeota. Catalyzed reporter deposition (CARD)-FISH combined with microautoradiography (MAR) demonstrated metabolic activity of this archaeon in the presence of ammonium. This finding was corroborated by the detection of amoA gene transcripts in the enrichment. CARD-FISH/ MAR showed that the moderately thermophilic AOA is highly active at 0.14 and 0.79 mM ammonium and is partially inhibited by a concentration of 3.08 mM. The enriched AOA, which is provisionally classified as ''Candidatus Nitrososphaera gargensis,'' is the first described thermophilic ammonia oxidizer and the first member of the crenarchaeotal group I.1b for which ammonium oxidation has been verified on a cellular level. Its preference for thermophilic conditions reinvigorates the debate on the thermophilic ancestry of AOA.ammonia oxidation ͉ archaea ͉ nitrification ͉ thermophile ͉ amoA N itrification, the successive microbial oxidation of ammonia via nitrite to nitrate, is a crucial step in the biogeochemical nitrogen cycle, and ammonia-oxidizing microorganisms catalyze the first, rate-limiting step of this process. Until recently, the microbiology of ammonia oxidation was thought to be well understood. Aerobic, chemolithoautotrophic bacteria within the Beta-and Gammaproteobacteria were the only known ammoniaoxidizing microorganisms (1, 2). However, in the last few years, this understanding has been radically changed, first, by the discovery that ammonium can also be oxidized anaerobically by a clade of deep branching planctomycetes (3, 4), and later by the equally surprising cultivation of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) belonging to the Crenarchaeota (5). Since then, AOA were found to outnumber ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in several terrestrial and marine systems, including different soils (6), the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean (7), the Pacific Ocean (8), and the Black Sea (9). Furthermore, molecular analyses demonstrated that AOA also occur in association with marine sponges (10-13), and amoA sequences related to recognized AOA were retrieved in numerous studies from a wide variety of other habitats (7-9, 14-18), including two moderately thermophilic sites with a temperature below 50°C (19,20). The latter findin...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 53%

A moderately thermophilic ammonia-oxidizing crenarchaeote from a hot spring

Hatzenpichler¹,

Лебедева

Spieck

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

625

541

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“…In addition, there is the possibility of biological nitrogen fixation, fixing atmospheric N 2 to ammonia for use in biomolecules. In an anoxic early-Earth atmosphere, the NO produced by lightning will be reduced with H to form a nitroxyl molecule (HNO; Kasting & Walker 1981), which, according to Mancinelli & McKay (1988), would decompose in the oceans to NO K 2 and NO K 3 . Nitrate (NO K 3 ) and nitrite (NO K 2 ) would be used by heterotrophic denitrifiers to oxidize organic matter, producing N 2 and possibly some NH C 4 as reaction products.…”

Section: Nitrogen-based Ecosystemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early anaerobic metabolisms

Canfield

Rosing

Bjerrum

2006

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

338

311

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Before the advent of oxygenic photosynthesis, the biosphere was driven by anaerobic metabolisms. We catalogue and quantify the source strengths of the most probable electron donors and electron acceptors that would have been available to fuel early-Earth ecosystems. The most active ecosystems were probably driven by the cycling of H 2 and Fe 2C through primary production conducted by anoxygenic phototrophs. Interesting and dynamic ecosystems would have also been driven by the microbial cycling of sulphur and nitrogen species, but their activity levels were probably not so great. Despite the diversity of potential early ecosystems, rates of primary production in the early-Earth anaerobic biosphere were probably well below those rates observed in the marine environment. We shift our attention to the Earth environment at 3.8 Gyr ago, where the earliest marine sediments are preserved. We calculate, consistent with the carbon isotope record and other considerations of the carbon cycle, that marine rates of primary production at this time were probably an order of magnitude (or more) less than today. We conclude that the flux of reduced species to the Earth surface at this time may have been sufficient to drive anaerobic ecosystems of sufficient activity to be consistent with the carbon isotope record. Conversely, an ecosystem based on oxygenic photosynthesis was also possible with complete removal of the oxygen by reaction with reduced species from the mantle.

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“…The fixation of atmospheric nitrogen is an essential process for the survival of life on earth and a critical part of the global nitrogen cycle (14,22,39). The components that make up the nitrogenase complex are dinitrogenase (called the FeMo protein or component I) and dinitrogenase reductase (called the Fe protein or component II).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%