Observation of time quasicrystal and its transition to superfluid time crystal

We report experimental realization of a quantum time quasicrystal, and its transformation to a quantum time crystal. We study Bose-Einstein condensation of magnons, associated with coherent spin precession, created in a flexible trap in superfluid $^3$He-B. Under a periodic drive with an oscillating magnetic field, the coherent spin precession is stabilized at a frequency smaller than that of the drive, demonstrating spontaneous breaking of discrete time translation symmetry. The induced precession frequency is incommensurate with the drive, and hence the obtained state is a time quasicrystal. When the drive is turned off, the self-sustained coherent precession lives a macroscopically-long time, now representing a time crystal with broken symmetry with respect to continuous time translations. Additionally, the magnon condensate manifests spin superfluidity, justifying calling the obtained state a time supersolid or a time super-crystal

Archaea dominate the microbial community in an ecosystem with low-to-moderate temperature and extreme acidity

[Background] The current view suggests that in low-temperature acidic environments, archaea are significantly less abundant than bacteria. Thus, this study of the microbiome of Parys Mountain (Anglesey, UK) sheds light on the generality of this current assumption. Parys Mountain is a historically important copper mine and its acid mine drainage (AMD) water streams are characterised by constant moderate temperatures (8–18 °C), extremely low pH (1.7) and high concentrations of soluble iron and other metal cations.[Results] Metagenomic and SSU rRNA amplicon sequencing of DNA from Parys Mountain revealed a significant proportion of archaea affiliated with Euryarchaeota, which accounted for ca. 67% of the community. Within this phylum, potentially new clades of Thermoplasmata were overrepresented (58%), with the most predominant group being “E-plasma”, alongside low-abundant Cuniculiplasmataceae, ‘Ca. Micrarchaeota’ and ‘Terrestrial Miscellaneous Euryarchaeal Group’ (TMEG) archaea, which were phylogenetically close to Methanomassilicoccales and clustered with counterparts from acidic/moderately acidic settings. In the sediment, archaea and Thermoplasmata contributed the highest numbers in V3-V4 amplicon reads, in contrast with the water body community, where Proteobacteria, Nitrospirae, Acidobacteria and Actinobacteria outnumbered archaea. Cultivation efforts revealed the abundance of archaeal sequences closely related to Cuniculiplasma divulgatum in an enrichment culture established from the filterable fraction of the water sample. Enrichment cultures with unfiltered samples showed the presence of Ferrimicrobium acidiphilum, C. divulgatum, ‘Ca. Mancarchaeum acidiphilum Mia14’, ‘Ca. Micrarchaeota’-related and diverse minor (< 2%) bacterial metagenomic reads.[Conclusion] Contrary to expectation, our study showed a high abundance of archaea in this extremely acidic mine-impacted environment. Further, archaeal populations were dominated by one particular group, suggesting that they are functionally important. The prevalence of archaea over bacteria in these microbiomes and their spatial distribution patterns represents a novel and important advance in our understanding of acidophile ecology. We also demonstrated a procedure for the specific enrichment of cell wall-deficient members of the archaeal component of this community, although the large fraction of archaeal taxa remained unculturable. Lastly, we identified a separate clustering of globally occurring acidophilic members of TMEG that collectively belong to a distinct order within Thermoplasmata with yet unclear functional roles in the ecosystem.The work of OVG, PNG and SVT was supported by the Royal Society UK-Russia Exchange Grant #IE 160224 (RFBR 16-54-10072 КО project). OVG and PNG acknowledge ERA Net IB2 Project MetaCat through UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Grant BB/M029085/1 and the support of the Centre of Environmental Biotechnology Project funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Welsh Government. RB and PNG acknowledge the support of the Supercomputing Wales project, which is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) via the Welsh Government. The work of AAK and IVK was supported by the Russian Science Foundation grant # 18-44-04024. MF acknowledges grants PCIN-2014-107 (within ERA NET IB2 grant ERA-IB-14-030—MetaCat), PCIN-2017-078 (within the Marine Biotechnology ERA-NET (ERA-MBT) funded under the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme, 2013-2017, Grant agreement 604814), BIO2014-54494-R and BIO2017-85522-R from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness

Data_Sheet_1_Genomic Insights Into Energy Metabolism of Carboxydocella thermautotrophica Coupling Hydrogenogenic CO Oxidation With the Reduction of Fe(III) Minerals.PDF

<p>The genus Carboxydocella forms a deeply branching family in the class Clostridia and is currently represented by three physiologically diverse species of thermophilic prokaryotes. The type strain of the type species, Carboxydocella thermautotrophica 41^T, is an obligate chemolithoautotroph growing exclusively by hydrogenogenic CO oxidation. Another strain, isolated from a hot spring at Uzon caldera, Kamchatka in the course of this work, is capable of coupling carboxydotrophy and dissimilatory reduction of Fe(III) from oxic and phyllosilicate minerals. The processes of carboxydotrophy and Fe(III) reduction appeared to be interdependent in this strain. The genomes of both isolates were sequenced, assembled into single chromosome sequences (for strain 41^T a plasmid sequence was also assembled) and analyzed. Genome analysis revealed that each of the two strains possessed six genes encoding diverse Ni,Fe-containing CO dehydrogenases (maximum reported in complete prokaryotic genomes), indicating crucial role of carbon monoxide in C. thermautotrophica metabolism. Both strains possessed a set of 30 multiheme c-type cytochromes, but only the newly isolated Fe-reducing strain 019 had one extra gene of a 17-heme cytochrome, which is proposed to represent a novel determinant of dissimilatory iron reduction in prokaryotes. Mössbauer studies revealed that strain 019 induced reductive transformation of the abundant ferric/ferrous-mica mineral glauconite to siderite during carboxydotrophic growth. Reconstruction of the C. thermautotrophica strains energy metabolism is the first comprehensive genome analysis of a representative of the deep phylogenetic branch Clostridia Incertae Sedis, family V. Our data provide insights into energy metabolism of C. thermautotrophica with an emphasis on its ecological implications.</p

Table_2_Genomic Insights Into Energy Metabolism of Carboxydocella thermautotrophica Coupling Hydrogenogenic CO Oxidation With the Reduction of Fe(III) Minerals.XLSX

<p>The genus Carboxydocella forms a deeply branching family in the class Clostridia and is currently represented by three physiologically diverse species of thermophilic prokaryotes. The type strain of the type species, Carboxydocella thermautotrophica 41^T, is an obligate chemolithoautotroph growing exclusively by hydrogenogenic CO oxidation. Another strain, isolated from a hot spring at Uzon caldera, Kamchatka in the course of this work, is capable of coupling carboxydotrophy and dissimilatory reduction of Fe(III) from oxic and phyllosilicate minerals. The processes of carboxydotrophy and Fe(III) reduction appeared to be interdependent in this strain. The genomes of both isolates were sequenced, assembled into single chromosome sequences (for strain 41^T a plasmid sequence was also assembled) and analyzed. Genome analysis revealed that each of the two strains possessed six genes encoding diverse Ni,Fe-containing CO dehydrogenases (maximum reported in complete prokaryotic genomes), indicating crucial role of carbon monoxide in C. thermautotrophica metabolism. Both strains possessed a set of 30 multiheme c-type cytochromes, but only the newly isolated Fe-reducing strain 019 had one extra gene of a 17-heme cytochrome, which is proposed to represent a novel determinant of dissimilatory iron reduction in prokaryotes. Mössbauer studies revealed that strain 019 induced reductive transformation of the abundant ferric/ferrous-mica mineral glauconite to siderite during carboxydotrophic growth. Reconstruction of the C. thermautotrophica strains energy metabolism is the first comprehensive genome analysis of a representative of the deep phylogenetic branch Clostridia Incertae Sedis, family V. Our data provide insights into energy metabolism of C. thermautotrophica with an emphasis on its ecological implications.</p