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Marine microbiology

Illuminating the importance of nitrite oxidation

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 16, page 65 (2018)Cite this article

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So far, most of the information about marine nitrite-oxidizing bacteria has come from a few cultured isolates. To get a comprehensive picture of the ecology and function of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria, the authors screened 3,463 single amplified genomes (SAGs) from dark-ocean samples based on their 16S rRNA genes. They identified 98 SAGs that belonged to the Nitrospinae phylum and all these SAGs diverged from the single available isolate of this phylum. Phylogenetically, the Nitrospinae were grouped into two clades and their abundance varied in publicly available metagenome data sets. Open-ocean Nitrospinae were abundant at depths below 200 m around the globe, which indicates that they are well adapted to the dark-ocean environment.

The Nitrospinae SAGs contained genes encoding nitrite oxidoreductases and enzymes for the reductive tricarboxylic acid cycle. There was no evidence for any other energy-generating pathways such as ammonium or sulfur oxidation, which suggests that these chemoautotrophic bacteria rely on nitrite oxidation. Furthermore, nitrite oxidoreductase subunits are some of the most highly expressed genes in dark-ocean metatranscriptome data sets. Interestingly, the Nitrospinae also encoded urea transporters and ureases, which can be used for the generation of ammonium from urea. The authors suggest that this function might support cross-feeding to Thaumarchaeota, which then produce nitrite.

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References

  1. Pachiadaki, M. G. et al. Major role of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria in dark ocean carbon fixation. Science 358, 1046–1051 (2017)

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  1. Ursula Hofer
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Hofer, U. Illuminating the importance of nitrite oxidation. Nat Rev Microbiol 16, 65 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro.2017.165

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