Search results for "EXTREMOPHILE"

Extremophilic microbial communities on photovoltaic panel surfaces: a two‐year study

2020

Solar panel surfaces can be colonized by microorganisms adapted to desiccation, temperature fluctuations and solar radiation. Although the taxonomic and functional composition of these communities has been studied, the microbial colonization process remains unclear. In the present work, we have monitored this microbial colonization process during 24 months by performing weekly measurements of the photovoltaic efficiency, carrying out 16S rRNA gene high‐throughput sequencing, and studying the effect of antimicrobial compounds on the composition of the microbial biocenosis. This is the first time a long‐term study of the colonization process of solar panels has been performed, and our results…

Resistance to space simulating conditions and sporicidal treatments of spores from bacilli of extreme environments origins: implication for Astrobiol…

Microorganisms able to tolerate environmental extremes, or extremophiles, are ideal candidates to extend our knowledge on the limitations for terrestrial life, including sporicidal treatments, and on their ability to survive under conditions mimicking space environments. The spore resistance of bacilli isolated from extreme environments, cold (Antarctic soils) and hot (shallow hydrothermal vents of Eolian Islands, Italy), was evaluated towards environmental stressors (wet- and dry-heat, low and high pH values), sporicidal treatments and stresses simulating space-environments (UV-C and X-rays irradiations, desiccations by low pressure, exposition to oxidizing agents and low pressure plasma),…

Thermal restraint of a bacterial exopolysaccharide of shallow vent origin

2018

This is the post-print version of the following article: "Thermal restraint of a bacterial exopolysaccharide of shallow vent origin", which has been published in final form at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141813018308250?via%3Dihub; International audience; To dynamically characterize the thermal properties of the fructose-rich exopolysaccharide (EPS1-T14), produced by themarine thermophilic Bacillus licheniformis T14, the Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infra-Redspectroscopy was coupled to variable temperature ranging from ambient to 80 °C.The spectra were analyzed by the following innovative mathematical tools: i) non-ideal spectral deviation, ii) OHst…

The genomic sequence of Exiguobacterium chiriqhucha str. N139 reveals a species that thrives in cold waters and extreme environmental conditions

2017

We report the genome sequence of Exiguobacterium chiriqhucha str. N139, isolated from a high-altitude Andean lake. Comparative genomic analyses of the Exiguobacterium genomes available suggest that our strain belongs to the same species as the previously reported E. pavilionensis str. RW-2 and Exiguobacterium str. GIC 31. We describe this species and propose the chiriqhucha name to group them. ‘Chiri qhucha’ in Quechua means ‘cold lake’, which is a common origin of these three cosmopolitan Exiguobacteria. The 2,952,588-bp E. chiriqhucha str. N139 genome contains one chromosome and three megaplasmids. The genome analysis of the Andean strain suggests the presence of enzymes that confer E. ch…

Exiguobacterium pavilionensis str. N139, a halotolerant, UV-B and metal resistant bacteria from a high-altitude Andean lake

2016

We report the genome sequence of Exiguobacterium pavilionensis str. N139, isolated from a high-altitude Andean lake. The 2,952,588-bp genome contains one chromosome and three megaplasmids. The genome analysis suggests the presence of enzymes that confer E. pavilionensis str. N139 the ability to grow under multiple environmental extreme conditions, including high concentrations of different metals and high ultraviolet B radiation. Moreover, the regulation of its tryptophan biosynthesis suggests that novel pathways remain to be discovered, and that these pathways might be fundamental in the amino acid metabolism of the microbial community from Laguna Negra, Argentina .

Geochemical evidence for arsenic cycling in living microbialites of a High Altitude Andean Lake (Laguna Diamante, Argentina)

2020

Arsenic is best known as an environmental toxin, but this element could also serve as a metabolic energy source to certain microorganisms. Moreover, As cycling may have driven microbial life on early Earth prior to oxygenation of the atmosphere. Still, little is known about the arsenic cycling processes occurring in the presence of microorganisms and the possible traces that could be preserved in the rock record. To advance our understanding of this we studied the geochemical proxies of microbial As metabolism in living microbialites from Laguna Diamante, a likely Precambrian ecosystem analogue (Catamarca, Argentina). In this study, we show that the coexistence of As(III) and As(V) strongly…

Impact of Gluten-Friendly Bread on the Metabolism and Function of In Vitro Gut Microbiota in Healthy Human and Coeliac Subjects

2016

The main aim of this paper was to assess the in vitro response of healthy and coeliac human faecal microbiota to gluten-friendly bread (GFB). Thus, GFB and control bread (CB) were fermented with faecal microbiota in pH-controlled batch cultures. The effects on the major groups of microbiota were monitored over 48 h incubations by fluorescence in situ hybridisation. Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Furthermore, the death kinetics of Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Salmonella Typhimurium in a saline solution supplemented with GFB or CB were also assessed. The experiment…

Astrobiology of life on Earth

2021

Astrobiology is mistakenly regarded by some as a field confined to studies of life beyond Earth. Here, we consider life on Earth through an astrobiological lens. Whereas classical studies of microbiology historically focused on various anthropocentric sub-fields (such as fermented foods or commensals and pathogens of crop plants, livestock and humans), addressing key biological questions via astrobiological approaches can further our understanding of all life on Earth. We highlight potential implications of this approach through the articles in this Environmental Microbiology special issue ‘Ecophysiology of Extremophiles’. They report on the microbiology of places/processes including low-te…

Extremophilic taxa predominate in a microbial community of photovoltaic panels in a tropical region

2021

ABSTRACT Photovoltaic panels can be colonized by a highly diverse microbial diversity, despite life-threatening conditions. Although they are distributed worldwide, the microorganisms living on their surfaces have never been profiled in tropical regions using 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing and PICRUst metagenome prediction of functional content. In this work, we investigated photovoltaic panels from two cities in southeast Brazil, Sorocaba and Itatiba, using these bioinformatics approach. Results showed that, despite significant differences in microbial diversity (p < 0.001), the taxonomic profile was very similar for both photovoltaic panels, dominated mainly by Proteobacteria,…