Expanding Antarctic biogeography: microbial ecology of Antarctic island soils

The majority of islands surrounding the Antarctic continent are poorly characterized in terms of microbial macroecology due to their remote locations, geographical isolation and access difficulties. The 2016/2017 Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE) provided unprecedented access to a number of these islands. In the present study we use metagenomic methods to investigate the microbial ecology of soil samples recovered from 11 circum-Antarctic islands as part of ACE, and to investigate the functional potential of their soil microbial communities. Comparisons of the prokaryote and lower eukaryote phylogenetic compositions of the soil communities indicated that the various islands harbored spatially distinct microbiomes with limited overlap. In particular, we identified a high prevalence of lichen-associated fungal taxa in the soils, suggesting that terrestrial lichens may be one of the key drivers of soil microbial ecology on these islands. Differential abundance and redundancy analyses suggested that these soil microbial communities are also strongly shaped by multiple abiotic factors, including soil pH and average annual temperatures. Most importantly, we demonstrate that the islands sampled in this study can be clustered into three distinct large-scale biogeographical regions in a conservation context, the sub-, Maritime and Continental Antarctic, which are distinct in both environmental conditions and microbial ecology, but are consistent with the widely-used regionalization applied to multicellular Antarctic terrestrial organisms. Functional profiling of the island soil metagenomes from these three broad biogeographical regions also suggested a degree of functional differentiation, reflecting their distinct microbial ecologies. Taken together, these results represent the most extensive characterization of the microbial ecology of Antarctic island soils to date

Impacts of multiple contamination of trace metal elements on the microbial communities in a highly anthropized coastal environnement : the Toulon bay

La rade de Toulon est un écosystème côtier fortement anthropisé qui présente un gradient multiple de contamination en éléments traces métalliques, qui en fait un site atelier remarquable. Le couplage des campagnes de terrain et des expérimentations en laboratoire a permis d'étudier l'impact de la contamination métallique sur les communautés microbiennes planctoniques et en biofilm. L'utilisation de la chimie analytique, de la cytométrie en flux et du métabarcoding a permis d'étudier plusieurs aspects des communautés, comme l'abondance et la diversité taxonomique en réponse à la contamination métallique dans la rade de Toulon. Ainsi, les communautés d'ultraphytoplancton et de bactérioplancton ont montré une structuration spatiale forte le long des gradients métalliques. Les expérimentations en laboratoire ont montré que les ETMs jouaient un rôle important sur l'abondance et la diversité des communautés ultraplanctoniques, par des effets directs (toxicité) et indirects (couplage phytoplancton-bactérioplancton). La communauté microbienne de biofilm a été beaucoup moins impactée par les gradients métalliques dans la rade de Toulon que la communauté ultraplanctonique. En revanche, la communauté de biofilm a semblé influencée par sa proximité avec le compartiment sédimentaire, qui ont pu fournir des microorganismes colonisateurs lors d'épisodes de remise en suspension. En conclusion, les ETMs ont semblé avoir un impact sur l'ensemble des communautés microbiennes de la rade de Toulon avec toutefois, des variations d'influence selon le compartiment.Toulon Bay is a highly anthropized coastal ecosystem that present multiple trace metal contamination gradients, and was considered as a model system. The coupling of field campaigns and laboratory experiments were used to study the impact of trace metal contamination on bath planktonic and biofilm microbial communities. Chemical analyses, flux cytometry, and metabarcoding were used to study several characteristics of communities, as abundance and taxonomie diversity in response to trace metal contamination in the Toulon Bay. Then, bath ultraphytoplankton and bacterioplankton showed strong spatial patterns along the trace metal contamination gradients. Laboratory experiments showed that trace metals played an important raie on bath abundance and diversity patterns of ultraplanktonic communities, by bath potential direct (toxicity) and indirect (phytoplankton-bacterioplankton interactions). Conversely to planktonic communities, trace metal contamination had limited impact on microbial biofilm community. ln contrast, microbial biofilm community seemed to be influenced by surrounding sediments, and by potential colonizer taxa from benthic compartment resuspended du ring sediment resuspension events. ln conclusion, trace metals seemed to have impacts on all the microbial communities of Toulon Bay, with variations of influence depending on the compartment

Impacts de la contamination multiple en éléments traces métalliques sur les communautés microbiennes dans un environnement côtier fortement anthropisé : la rade de Toulon

Toulon Bay is a highly anthropized coastal ecosystem that present multiple trace metal contamination gradients, and was considered as a model system. The coupling of field campaigns and laboratory experiments were used to study the impact of trace metal contamination on bath planktonic and biofilm microbial communities. Chemical analyses, flux cytometry, and metabarcoding were used to study several characteristics of communities, as abundance and taxonomie diversity in response to trace metal contamination in the Toulon Bay. Then, bath ultraphytoplankton and bacterioplankton showed strong spatial patterns along the trace metal contamination gradients. Laboratory experiments showed that trace metals played an important raie on bath abundance and diversity patterns of ultraplanktonic communities, by bath potential direct (toxicity) and indirect (phytoplankton-bacterioplankton interactions). Conversely to planktonic communities, trace metal contamination had limited impact on microbial biofilm community. ln contrast, microbial biofilm community seemed to be influenced by surrounding sediments, and by potential colonizer taxa from benthic compartment resuspended du ring sediment resuspension events. ln conclusion, trace metals seemed to have impacts on all the microbial communities of Toulon Bay, with variations of influence depending on the compartment.La rade de Toulon est un écosystème côtier fortement anthropisé qui présente un gradient multiple de contamination en éléments traces métalliques, qui en fait un site atelier remarquable. Le couplage des campagnes de terrain et des expérimentations en laboratoire a permis d'étudier l'impact de la contamination métallique sur les communautés microbiennes planctoniques et en biofilm. L'utilisation de la chimie analytique, de la cytométrie en flux et du métabarcoding a permis d'étudier plusieurs aspects des communautés, comme l'abondance et la diversité taxonomique en réponse à la contamination métallique dans la rade de Toulon. Ainsi, les communautés d'ultraphytoplancton et de bactérioplancton ont montré une structuration spatiale forte le long des gradients métalliques. Les expérimentations en laboratoire ont montré que les ETMs jouaient un rôle important sur l'abondance et la diversité des communautés ultraplanctoniques, par des effets directs (toxicité) et indirects (couplage phytoplancton-bactérioplancton). La communauté microbienne de biofilm a été beaucoup moins impactée par les gradients métalliques dans la rade de Toulon que la communauté ultraplanctonique. En revanche, la communauté de biofilm a semblé influencée par sa proximité avec le compartiment sédimentaire, qui ont pu fournir des microorganismes colonisateurs lors d'épisodes de remise en suspension. En conclusion, les ETMs ont semblé avoir un impact sur l'ensemble des communautés microbiennes de la rade de Toulon avec toutefois, des variations d'influence selon le compartiment

Global overview and major challenges of host prediction methods for uncultivated phages.

Bacterial communities play critical roles across all of Earth's biomes, affecting human health and global ecosystem functioning. They do so under strong constraints exerted by viruses, that is, bacteriophages or 'phages'. Phages can reshape bacterial communities' structure, influence long-term evolution of bacterial populations, and alter host cell metabolism during infection. Metagenomics approaches, that is, shotgun sequencing of environmental DNA or RNA, recently enabled large-scale exploration of phage genomic diversity, yielding several millions of phage genomes now to be further analyzed and characterized. One major challenge however is the lack of direct host information for these phages. Several methods and tools have been proposed to bioinformatically predict the potential host(s) of uncultivated phages based only on genome sequence information. Here we review these different approaches and highlight their distinct strengths and limitations. We also outline complementary experimental assays which are being proposed to validate and refine these bioinformatic predictions

Global overview and major challenges of host prediction methods for uncultivated phages.

Bacterial communities play critical roles across all of Earth's biomes, affecting human health and global ecosystem functioning. They do so under strong constraints exerted by viruses, that is, bacteriophages or 'phages'. Phages can reshape bacterial communities' structure, influence long-term evolution of bacterial populations, and alter host cell metabolism during infection. Metagenomics approaches, that is, shotgun sequencing of environmental DNA or RNA, recently enabled large-scale exploration of phage genomic diversity, yielding several millions of phage genomes now to be further analyzed and characterized. One major challenge however is the lack of direct host information for these phages. Several methods and tools have been proposed to bioinformatically predict the potential host(s) of uncultivated phages based only on genome sequence information. Here we review these different approaches and highlight their distinct strengths and limitations. We also outline complementary experimental assays which are being proposed to validate and refine these bioinformatic predictions

Changes in Bacterioplankton Communities Resulting From Direct and Indirect Interactions With Trace Metal Gradients in an Urbanized Marine Coastal Area

International audienceUnraveling the relative importance of both environmental conditions and ecological processes regulating bacterioplankton communities is a central goal in microbial ecology. Marine coastal environments are among the most urbanized areas and as a consequence experience environmental pressures. The highly anthropized Toulon Bay (France) was considered as a model system to investigate shifts in bacterioplankton communities along natural and anthropogenic physicochemical gradients during a 1-month survey. In depth geochemical characterization mainly revealed strong and progressive Cd, Zn, Cu, and Pb contamination gradients between the entrance of the Bay and the northwestern anthropized area. On the other hand, low-amplitude natural gradients were observed for other environmental variables. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we observed strong spatial patterns in bacterioplankton taxonomic and predicted function structure along the chemical contamination gradient. Variation partitioning analysis demonstrated that multiple metallic contamination explained the largest part of the spatial biological variations observed, but DOC and salinity were also significant contributors. Network analysis revealed that biotic interactions were far more numerous than direct interactions between microbial groups and environmental variables. This suggests indirect effects of the environment, and especially trace metals, on the community through a few taxonomic groups. These spatial patterns were also partially found for predicted bacterioplankton functions, thus indicating a limited functional redundancy. All these results highlight both potential direct influences of trace metals contamination on coastal bacterioplankton and indirect forcing through biotic interactions and cascading

Viruses interact with hosts that span distantly related microbial domains in dense hydrothermal mats

Many microbes in nature reside in dense, metabolically interdependent communities. We investigated the nature and extent of microbe-virus interactions in relation to microbial density and syntrophy by examining microbe-virus interactions in a biomass dense, deep-sea hydrothermal mat. Using metagenomic sequencing, we find numerous instances where phylogenetically distant (up to domain level) microbes encode CRISPR-based immunity against the same viruses in the mat. Evidence of viral interactions with hosts cross-cutting microbial domains is particularly striking between known syntrophic partners, for example those engaged in anaerobic methanotrophy. These patterns are corroborated by proximity-ligation-based (Hi-C) inference. Surveys of public datasets reveal additional viruses interacting with hosts across domains in diverse ecosystems known to harbour syntrophic biofilms. We propose that the entry of viral particles and/or DNA to non-primary host cells may be a common phenomenon in densely populated ecosystems, with eco-evolutionary implications for syntrophic microbes and CRISPR-mediated inter-population augmentation of resilience against viruses

Impacts of copper and lead exposure on prokaryotic communities from contaminated contrasted coastal seawaters: the influence of previous metal exposure

International audienceOur understanding of environmental factors controlling prokaryotic community is largely hampered by the large environmental variability across spatial scales (e.g. trace metal contamination, nutrient enrichment, physico-chemical variations) and the broad diversity of bacterial pre-exposure to environmental factors. In this article, we investigated the specific influence of copper (Cu) and lead (Pb) on prokaryotic communities from the uncontaminated site, using mesocosm experiments. In addition, we studied how pre-exposure (i.e. life history) affects communities, with reference to previous metal exposure on the response of three prokaryotic communities to similar Cu exposition. This study showed a stronger influence of Cu contamination than Pb contamination on prokaryotic diversity and structure. We identified 12, and 34 bacterial families and genera, respectively, contributing to the significant differences observed in community structure between control and spiked conditions. Taken altogether, our results point towards a combination of direct negative responses to Cu contamination and indirect responses mediated by interaction with phytoplankton. These identified responses were largely conditioned by the previous exposure of community to contaminants

Temporal dynamics of microbial transcription in wetted hyperarid desert soils

Rainfall is rare in hyperarid deserts but, when it occurs, it triggers large biological responses essential for the long-term maintenance of the ecosystem. In drylands, microbes play major roles in nutrient cycling, but their responses to short-lived opportunity windows are poorly understood. Due to its ephemeral nature, mRNA is ideally suited to study microbiome dynamics upon abrupt changes in the environment. We analyzed microbial community transcriptomes after simulated rainfall in a Namib Desert soil over 7 days. Using total mRNA from dry and watered plots we infer short-term functional responses in the microbiome. A rapid two-phase cycle of activation and return to basal state was completed in a short period. Motility systems activated immediately, whereas competition–toxicity increased in parallel to predator taxa and the drying of soils. Carbon fixation systems were downregulated, and reactivated upon return to a near-dry state. The chaperone HSP20 was markedly regulated by watering across all major bacteria, suggesting a particularly important role in adaptation to desiccated ecosystems. We show that transcriptomes provide consistent and high resolution information on microbiome processes in a low-biomass environment, revealing shared patterns across taxa. We propose a structured dispersal–predation dynamic as a central driver of desert microbial responses to rainfall.</p

Trace Metal Contamination Impacts Predicted Functions More Than Structure of Marine Prokaryotic Biofilm Communities in an Anthropized Coastal Area

International audienceTrace metal (TM) contamination in marine coastal areas is a worldwide threat for aquatic communities. However, little is known about the influence of a multi-chemical contamination on both marine biofilm communities’ structure and functioning. To determine how TM contamination potentially impacted microbial biofilms’ structure and their functions, polycarbonate (PC) plates were immerged in both surface and bottom of the seawater column, at five sites, along strong TM contamination gradients, in Toulon Bay. The PC plates were incubated during 4 weeks to enable colonization by biofilm-forming microorganisms on artificial surfaces. Biofilms from the PC plates, as well as surrounding seawaters, were collected and analyzed by 16S rRNA amplicon gene sequencing to describe prokaryotic community diversity, structure and functions, and to determine the relationships between bacterioplankton and biofilm communities. Our results showed that prokaryotic biofilm structure was not significantly affected by the measured environmental variables, while the functional profiles of biofilms were significantly impacted by Cu, Mn, Zn, and salinity. Biofilms from the contaminated sites were dominated by tolerant taxa to contaminants and specialized hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms. Functions related to major xenobiotics biodegradation and metabolism, such as methane metabolism, degradation of aromatic compounds, and benzoate degradation, as well as functions involved in quorum sensing signaling, extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) matrix, and biofilm formation were significantly over-represented in the contaminated site relative to the uncontaminated one. Taken together, our results suggest that biofilms may be able to survive to strong multi-chemical contamination because of the presence of tolerant taxa in biofilms, as well as the functional responses of biofilm communities. Moreover, biofilm communities exhibited significant variations of structure and functional profiles along the seawater column, potentially explained by the contribution of taxa from surrounding sediments. Finally, we found that both structure and functions were significantly distinct between the biofilm and bacterioplankton, highlighting major differences between the both lifestyles, and the divergence of their responses facing to a multi-chemical contamination