Microbial metabolic potential of phenol degradation in wastewater treatment plant of crude oil refinery: analysis of metagenomes and characterization of isolates

The drilling, processing and transportation of oil are the main sources of pollution in water and soil. The current work analyzes the microbial diversity and aromatic compounds degradation potential in the metagenomes of communities in the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) of a crude oil refinery. By focusing on the degradation of phenol, we observed the involvement of diverse indigenous microbial communities at different steps of the WWTP. The anaerobic bacterial and archaeal genera were replaced by aerobic and facultative anaerobic bacteria through the biological treatment processes. The phyla Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Planctomycetes were dominating at different stages of the treatment. Most of the established protein sequences of the phenol degradation key enzymes belonged to bacteria from the class Alphaproteobacteria. From 35 isolated strains, 14 were able to grow on aromatic compounds, whereas several phenolic compound-degrading strains also degraded aliphatic hydrocarbons. Two strains, Acinetobacter venetianus ICP1 and Pseudomonas oleovorans ICTN13, were able to degrade various aromatic and aliphatic pollutants and were further characterized by whole genome sequencing and cultivation experiments in the presence of phenol to ascertain their metabolic capacity in phenol degradation. When grown alone, the intermediates of catechol degradation, the meta or ortho pathways, accumulated into the growth environment of these strains. In the mixed cultures of the strains ICP1 and ICTN13, phenol was degraded via cooperation, in which the strain ICP1 was responsible for the adherence of cells and ICTN13 diminished the accumulation of toxic intermediates.This study was supported by the ERA-NET project WRANA (Inno-INDIGO/0004/2014), and by the Institutional Research Funding IUT20-19 from Eesti Teadusagentuur (Estonian Research Council) to MK, by the strategic program UID/BIA/04050/2013 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007569) funded by national funds through the FCT I.P. and by the ERDF through the COMPETE2020-Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) to PMS, and by Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, New Delhi, BT/IN/INNO-INDIGO/29/AK/2015-16 to AK. The isolated strains are deposited in the Collection of Environmental and Laboratory Microbial Strains (CELMS; financed by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research) (RLOMRCELMS) the public catalogue of which is available on the Estonian Electronic Microbial dataBase (EEMB) website http://eemb.ut.ee

Glut3 Addiction Is a Druggable Vulnerability for a Molecularly Defined Subpopulation of Glioblastoma.

While molecular subtypes of glioblastoma (GBM) are defined using gene expression and mutation profiles, we identify a unique subpopulation based on addiction to the high-affinity glucose transporter, Glut3. Although Glut3 is a known driver of a cancer stem cell phenotype, direct targeting is complicated by its expression in neurons. Using established GBM lines and patient-derived stem cells, we identify a subset of tumors within the "proneural" and "classical" subtypes that are addicted to aberrant signaling from integrin αvβ3, which activates a PAK4-YAP/TAZ signaling axis to enhance Glut3 expression. This defined subpopulation of GBM is highly sensitive to agents that disrupt this pathway, including the integrin antagonist cilengitide, providing a targeted therapeutic strategy for this unique subset of GBM tumors