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Ammonia Oxidation (ammonia + oxidation)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Life Sciences	93%

Selected Abstracts

Relative abundance and diversity of ammonia-oxidizing archaea and bacteria in the San Francisco Bay estuary

ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 11 2008
Annika C. Mosier
Summary Ammonia oxidation in marine and estuarine sediments plays a pivotal role in the cycling and removal of nitrogen. Recent reports have shown that the newly discovered ammonia-oxidizing archaea can be both abundant and diverse in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. In this study, we examined the abundance and diversity of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and betaproteobacteria (,-AOB) across physicochemical gradients in San Francisco Bay , the largest estuary on the west coast of the USA. In contrast to reports that AOA are far more abundant than ,-AOB in both terrestrial and marine systems, our quantitative PCR estimates indicated that ,-AOB amoA (encoding ammonia monooxygenase subunit A) copy numbers were greater than AOA amoA in most of the estuary. Ammonia-oxidizing archaea were only more pervasive than ,-AOB in the low-salinity region of the estuary. Both AOA and ,-AOB communities exhibited distinct spatial structure within the estuary. AOA amoA sequences from the north part of the estuary formed a large and distinct low-salinity phylogenetic group. The majority of the ,-AOB sequences were closely related to other marine/estuarine Nitrosomonas -like and Nitrosospira -like sequences. Both ammonia-oxidizer community composition and abundance were strongly correlated with salinity. Ammonia-oxidizing enrichment cultures contained AOA and ,-AOB amoA sequences with high similarity to environmental sequences. Overall, this study significantly enhances our understanding of estuarine ammonia-oxidizing microbial communities and highlights the environmental conditions and niches under which different AOA and ,-AOB phylotypes may thrive. [source]

Growth, activity and temperature responses of ammonia-oxidizing archaea and bacteria in soil microcosms

ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 5 2008
Maria Tourna
Summary Ammonia oxidation, as the first step in the nitrification process, plays a central role in the global cycling of nitrogen. Although bacteria are traditionally considered to be responsible for ammonia oxidation, a role for archaea has been suggested by data from metagenomic studies and by the isolation of a marine, autotrophic, ammonia-oxidizing, non-thermophilic crenarchaeon. Evidence for ammonia oxidation by non-thermophilic crenarchaea in marine and terrestrial environments is largely based on abundance of bacterial and archaeal ammonia monooxygenase (amo) genes, rather than activity. In this study, we have determined the influence of temperature on the response of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and archaea in nitrifying soil microcosms using two approaches, involving analysis of transcriptional activity of 16S rRNA genes and of a key functional gene, amoA, which encodes ammonia monooxygenase subunit A. There was little evidence of changes in relative abundance or transcriptional activity of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria during nitrification. In contrast, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis of crenarchaeal 16S rRNA and crenarchaeal amoA genes provided strong evidence of changes in community structure of active archaeal ammonia oxidizers. Community structure changes were similar during incubation at different temperatures and much of the activity was due to a group of non-thermophilic crenarchaea associated with subsurface and marine environments, rather than soil. The findings suggest a role for crenarchaea in soil nitrification and that further information is required on their biogeography. [source]

Abundances of crenarchaeal amoA genes and transcripts in the Pacific Ocean

ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 3 2010
Matthew J. Church
Summary Planktonic Crenarchaea are thought to play a key role in chemolithotrophic ammonia oxidation, a critical step of the marine nitrogen (N) cycle. In this study, we examined the spatial distributions of ammonia-oxidizing Crenarchaea across a large (,5200 km) region of the central Pacific Ocean. Examination of crenarchaeal 16S rRNA, ammonia monooxygenase subunit A (amoA) genes, and amoA transcript abundances provided insight into their spatial distributions and activities. Crenarchaeal gene abundances increased three to four orders of magnitude with depth between the upper ocean waters and dimly lit waters of the mesopelagic zone. The resulting median value of the crenarchaeal amoA: 16S rRNA gene ratio was 1.3, suggesting the majority of Crenarchaea in the epi- and mesopelagic regions of the Pacific Ocean have the metabolic machinery for ammonia oxidation. Crenarchaeal amoA transcript abundances typically increased one to two orders of magnitude in the transitional zone separating the epipelagic waters from the mesopelagic (100,200 m), before decreasing into the interior of the mesopelagic zone. The resulting gene copy normalized transcript abundances revealed elevated amoA expression in the upper ocean waters (0,100 m) where crenarchaeal abundances were low, with transcripts decreasing into the mesopelagic zone as crenarchaeal gene abundances increased. These results suggest ammonia-oxidizing Crenarchaea are active contributors to the N cycle throughout the epi- and mesopelagic waters of the Pacific Ocean. [source]

Archaeal diversity and a gene for ammonia oxidation are coupled to oceanic circulation

ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 4 2009
Pierre E. Galand
Summary Evidence of microbial zonation in the open ocean is rapidly accumulating, but while the distribution of communities is often described according to depth, the other physical factors structuring microbial diversity and function remain poorly understood. Here we identify three different water masses in the North Water (eastern Canadian Arctic), defined by distinct temperature and salinity characteristics, and show that they contained distinct archaeal communities. Moreover, we found that one of the water masses contained an increased abundance of the archaeal alpha-subunit of the ammonia monooxygenase gene (amoA) and accounted for 70% of the amoA gene detected overall. This indicates likely differences in putative biogeochemical capacities among different water masses. The ensemble of our results strongly suggest that the widely accepted view of depth stratification did not explain microbial diversity, but rather that parent water masses provide the framework for predicting communities and potential microbial function in an Arctic marine system. Our results emphasize that microbial distributions are strongly influenced by oceanic circulation, implying that shifting currents and water mass boundaries resulting from climate change may well impact patterns of microbial diversity by displacing whole biomes from their historic distributions. This relocation could have the potential to establish a substantially different geography of microbial-driven biogeochemical processes and associated oceanic production. [source]

Growth, activity and temperature responses of ammonia-oxidizing archaea and bacteria in soil microcosms

Quantitative analyses of the abundance and composition of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and ammonia-oxidizing archaea of a Chinese upland red soil under long-term fertilization practices

ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 9 2007
Ji-zheng He
Summary The abundance and composition of soil ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) were investigated by using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, cloning and sequencing approaches based on amoA genes. The soil, classified as agri-udic ferrosols with pH (H2O) ranging from 3.7 to 6.0, was sampled in summer and winter from long-term field experimental plots which had received 16 years continuous fertilization treatments, including fallow (CK0), control without fertilizers (CK) and those with combinations of fertilizer nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K): N, NP, NK, PK, NPK and NPK plus organic manure (OM). Population sizes of AOB and AOA changed greatly in response to the different fertilization treatments. The NPK + OM treatment had the highest copy numbers of AOB and AOA amoA genes among the treatments that received mineral fertilizers, whereas the lowest copy numbers were recorded in the N treatment. Ammonia-oxidizing archaea were more abundant than AOB in all the corresponding treatments, with AOA to AOB ratios ranging from 1.02 to 12.36. Significant positive correlations were observed among the population sizes of AOB and AOA, soil pH and potential nitrification rates, indicating that both AOB and AOA played an important role in ammonia oxidation in the soil. Phylogenetic analyses of the amoA gene fragments showed that all AOB sequences from different treatments were affiliated with Nitrosospira or Nitrosospira- like species and grouped into cluster 3, and little difference in AOB community composition was recorded among different treatments. All AOA sequences fell within cluster S (soil origin) and cluster M (marine and sediment origin). Cluster M dominated exclusively in the N, NP, NK and PK treatments, indicating a pronounced difference in the community composition of AOA in response to the long-term fertilization treatments. These findings could be fundamental to improve our understanding of the importance of both AOB and AOA in the cycling of nitrogen and other nutrients in terrestrial ecosystems. [source]

Export of nitrogenous compounds due to incomplete cycling within biological soil crusts of arid lands

ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 3 2007
Shannon L. Johnson
Summary Second only to water among limiting factors, nitrogen controls the fertility of most arid regions. Where dry and wet depositions are weak, as in the western US deserts, N inputs rely heavily on biological N2 fixation. Topsoil cyanobacterial communities known as biological soil crusts (BSCs) are major N2 fixation hot spots in arid lands, but the fate of their fixed N remains controversial. Using a combination of microscale and mesoscale process rate determinations, we found that, in spite of theoretically optimal conditions, denitrification rates in BSCs were paradoxically immaterial for nitrogen cycling. Denitrifier populations within BSCs were extremely low. Because of this absence of denitrification, and because of the limitation of respiration and ammonia oxidation by diffusive O2 supply, we could demonstrate that BSCs function as net exporters of ammonium, nitrate and organic N to the soils they cover, in approximately stoichiometrically equal proportions. Overall export rates during periods of biological activity are in the range of tens to hundreds of ,mol-N m,2 h,1, commensurate with those of N2 fixation. These results explain the long-term dependence of BSCs on N2 fixation, confirm their role in landscape fertility, and provide a robust argument for conservation of these endangered communities. [source]

Changes in the community structure and activity of betaproteobacterial ammonia-oxidizing sediment bacteria along a freshwater,marine gradient

ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 4 2006
Thomas E. Freitag
Summary To determine whether the distribution of estuarine ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) was influenced by salinity, the community structure of betaproteobacterial ammonia oxidizers (AOB) was characterized along a salinity gradient in sediments of the Ythan estuary, on the east coast of Scotland, UK, by denaturant gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), cloning and sequencing of 16S rRNA gene fragments. Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria communities at sampling sites with strongest marine influence were dominated by Nitrosospira cluster 1-like sequences and those with strongest freshwater influence were dominated by Nitrosomonas oligotropha- like sequences. Nitrosomonas sp. Nm143 was the prevailing sequence type in communities at intermediate brackish sites. Diversity indices of AOB communities were similar at marine- and freshwater-influenced sites and did not indicate lower species diversity at intermediate brackish sites. The presence of sequences highly similar to the halophilic Nitrosomonas marina and the freshwater strain Nitrosomonas oligotropha at identical sampling sites indicates that AOB communities in the estuary are adapted to a range of salinities, while individual strains may be active at different salinities. Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria communities that were dominated by Nitrosospira cluster 1 sequence types, for which no cultured representative exists, were subjected to stable isotope probing (SIP) with 13C-HCO3,, to label the nucleic acids of active autotrophic nitrifiers. Analysis of 13C-associated 16S rRNA gene fragments, following CsCl density centrifugation, by cloning and DGGE indicated sequences highly similar to the AOB Nitrosomonas sp. Nm143 and Nitrosomonas cryotolerans and to the nitrite oxidizer Nitrospira marina. No sequence with similarity to the Nitrosospira cluster 1 clade was recovered during SIP analysis. The potential role of Nitrosospira cluster 1 in autotrophic ammonia oxidation therefore remains uncertain. [source]

Nitrifier denitrification can be a source of N2O from soil: a revised approach to the dual-isotope labelling method

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOIL SCIENCE, Issue 5 2010
D. M. Kool
Nitrifier denitrification (i.e. nitrite reduction by ammonia oxidizers) is one of the biochemical pathways of nitrous oxide (N2O) production. It is increasingly suggested that this pathway may contribute substantially to N2O production in soil, the major source of this greenhouse gas. However, although monoculture studies recognize its potential, methodological drawbacks prohibit conclusive proof that nitrifier denitrification occurs in actual soils. Here we suggest and apply a new isotopic approach to identify its presence in soil. In incubation experiments with 12 soils, N2O production was studied using oxygen (O) and nitrogen (N) isotope tracing, accounting for O exchange. Microbial biomass C and N and phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) patterns were analysed to explain potential differences in N2O production pathways. We found that in at least five of the soils nitrifier denitrification must have contributed to N2O production. Moreover, it may even have been responsible for all NH4+ -derived N2O in most soils. In contrast, N2O as a by-product of ammonia oxidation contributed very little to total production. Microbial biomass C and N and PLFA-distinguished microbial community composition were not indicative of differences in N2O production pathways. Overall, we show that combined O and N isotope tracing may still provide a powerful tool to understand N2O production pathways, provided that O exchange is accounted for. We conclude that nitrifier denitrification can indeed occur in soils, and may in fact be responsible for the greater proportion of total nitrifier-induced N2O production. [source]

Nitrification in terrestrial hot springs of Iceland and Kamchatka

FEMS MICROBIOLOGY ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2008
Laila J. Reigstad
Abstract Archaea have been detected recently as a major and often dominant component of the microbial communities performing ammonia oxidation in terrestrial and marine environments. In a molecular survey of archaeal ammonia monooxygenase (AMO) genes in terrestrial hot springs of Iceland and Kamchatka, the amoA gene encoding the ,-subunit of AMO was detected in a total of 14 hot springs out of the 22 investigated. Most of these amoA -positive hot springs had temperatures between 82 and 97 °C and pH range between 2.5 and 7. In phylogenetic analyses, these amoA genes formed three independent lineages within the known sequence clusters of marine or soil origin. Furthermore, in situ gross nitrification rates in Icelandic hot springs were estimated by the pool dilution technique directly on site. At temperatures above 80 °C, between 56 and 159 ,mol NO3, L,1 mud per day was produced. Furthermore, addition of ammonium to the hot spring samples before incubation yielded a more than twofold higher potential nitrification rate, indicating that the process was limited by ammonia supply. Our data provide evidence for an active role of archaea in nitrification of hot springs in a wide range of pH values and at a high temperature. [source]

Effects of soil improvement treatments on bacterial community structure and soil processes in an upland grassland soil

FEMS MICROBIOLOGY ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2003
Neil D. Gray
Abstract Temporal temperature gradient electrophoresis (TTGE) analysis of 16S rRNA gene fragments amplified with primers selective for eubacteria and ,-proteobacterial ammonia-oxidising bacteria (AOB) was used to analyse changes in bacterial and AOB community profiles of an upland pasture following soil improvement treatments (addition of sewage sludge and/or lime). Community structure was compared with changes in activity assessed by laboratory measurements of basal respiration and ammonia oxidation potentials, and with measurements of treatment- and time-related changes in soil characteristics. The predominant bacterial populations had a high degree of similarity under all treatment regimens, which was most pronounced early in the growing season. Most of the differences that occurred between soil samples with time could be accounted for by spatial and temporal variation; however, analysis of variance and cluster analysis of similarities between 16S rDNA TTGE profiles indicated that soil improvement treatments exerted some effect on community structure. Lime application had the greatest influence. The impact of soil improvement treatments on autotrophic ammonia oxidation was significant and sustained, especially in soils which had received sewage sludge and lime treatments in combination. However, despite obvious changes in soil characteristics, e.g. pH and soil nitrogen, increasing heterogeneity in the AOB community structure over time obscured the treatment effects observed at the beginning of the experiment. Nevertheless, time series analysis of AOB TTGE profiles indicated that the AOB community in improved soils was more dynamic than in control soils where populations were found to be relatively stable. These observations suggest that the AOB populations exhibited a degree of functional redundancy. [source]

New concepts of microbial treatment processes for the nitrogen removal in wastewater

FEMS MICROBIOLOGY REVIEWS, Issue 4 2003
Ingo Schmidt
Abstract Many countries strive to reduce the emissions of nitrogen compounds (ammonia, nitrate, NOx) to the surface waters and the atmosphere. Since mainstream domestic wastewater treatment systems are usually already overloaded with ammonia, a dedicated nitrogen removal from concentrated secondary or industrial wastewaters is often more cost-effective than the disposal of such wastes to domestic wastewater treatment. The cost-effectiveness of separate treatment has increased dramatically in the past few years, since several processes for the biological removal of ammonia from concentrated waste streams have become available. Here, we review those processes that make use of new concepts in microbiology: partial nitrification, nitrifier denitrification and anaerobic ammonia oxidation (the anammox process). These processes target the removal of ammonia from gases, and ammonium-bicarbonate from concentrated wastewaters (i.e. sludge liquor and landfill leachate). The review addresses the microbiology, its consequences for their application, the current status regarding application, and the future developments. [source]

Molecular analysis of ammonia oxidation and denitrification in natural environments

FEMS MICROBIOLOGY REVIEWS, Issue 5 2000
Hermann Bothe
Abstract This review summarizes aspects of the current knowledge about the ecology of ammonia-oxidizing and denitrifying bacteria. The development of molecular techniques has contributed enormously to the rapid recent progress in the field. Different techniques for doing so are discussed. The characterization of ammonia-oxidizing and -denitrifying bacteria by sequencing the genes encoding 16S rRNA and functional proteins opened the possibility of constructing specific probes. It is now possible to monitor the occurrence of a particular species of these bacteria in any habitat and to get an estimate of the relative abundance of different types, even if they are not culturable as yet. These data indicate that the composition of nitrifying and denitrifying communities is complex and apparently subject to large fluctuations, both in time and in space. More attempts are needed to enrich and isolate those bacteria which dominate the processes, and to characterize them by a combination of physiological, biochemical and molecular techniques. While PCR and probing with nucleotides or antibodies are primarily used to study the structure of nitrifying and denitrifying communities, studies of their function in natural habitats, which require quantification at the transcriptional level, are currently not possible. [source]

Expression of merA, amoA and hao in continuously cultured Nitrosomonas europaea cells exposed to zinc chloride additions

BIOTECHNOLOGY & BIOENGINEERING, Issue 2 2009
Tyler S. Radniecki
Abstract The effects of ZnCl2 additions on a mercuric reductase, merA, ammonia monooxygenase, amoA, and hydroxylamine (NH2OH) oxidoreductase, hao, gene expression were examined in continuously cultured Nitrosomonas europaea cells. The reactor was operated for 85 days with a 6.9 d hydraulic retention time and with four successive additions of ZnCl2 achieving maximum concentrations from 3 to 90 µM Zn2+. Continuously cultured N. europaea cells were more resistant to Zn2+ inhibition than previously examined batch cultured cells due to the presence of Mg2+ in the growth media, suggesting that Zn2+ enters the cell through Mg2+ import channels. The maximum merA up-regulation was 45-fold and expression increased with increases in Zn2+ concentration and decreased as Zn2+ concentrations decreased. Although Zn2+ irreversibly inactivated ammonia oxidation in N. europaea, the addition of either 600 µM CuSO4 or 2250 µM MgSO4 protected N. europaea from ZnCl2 inhibition, indicating a competition between Zn2+ and Cu2+/Mg2+ for uptake and/or AMO active sites. Since ZnCl2 inhibition is irreversible and amoA was up-regulated at 30 and 90 µM additions, it is hypothesized that de novo synthesis of the AMO enzyme is needed to overcome inhibition. The up-regulation of merA during exposure to non-inhibitory Zn2+ levels indicates that merA is an excellent early warning signal for Zn2+ inhibition. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2009;102: 546,553. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]