Environmental microbiology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microbial fuel cells generate electricity from a variety of sources, however from methane only negligible electrical power has been reported so far. Here the authors convert methane into electricity using a synthetic consortium consisting of an engineered archaeal strain, microorganisms from methane-acclimated sludge, andGeobacter sulfurreducens.

    • Michael J. McAnulty
    • , Venkata G. Poosarla
    •  & Thomas K. Wood

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bioaerosols may be generated when bubbles break on the surface of water, but it is unclear if this mechanism works with soil-based microbes. Here, the authors show that soil bacteria may be transferred from the soil surface and dispersed by raindrops.

    • Young Soo Joung
    • , Zhifei Ge
    •  & Cullen R. Buie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The endophytic fungusMetarhizium robertsiiis also an insect pathogen and can facilitate transfer of insect-derived nitrogen to host plants. Here, the authors show that carbon is transferred from plant to fungus suggesting a tripartite interaction where nitrogen is exchanged for photosynthate.

    • Scott W. Behie
    • , Camila C. Moreira
    •  & Michael J. Bidochka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Direct interspecies electron transfer has been shown in methane-producing communities, but it is unknown how widespread this mechanism is. Here, Haet al. show that anoxygenic photosynthesis can be driven by direct electron transfer from a heterotrophic partner bacterium.

    • Phuc T. Ha
    • , Stephen R. Lindemann
    •  & Haluk Beyenal

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the production processes behind oceanic sources of nitrous oxide (N2O), a potent greenhouse gas, is of critical importance. Here, the authors reveal an archaeal-mediated N2O production pathway in the North Pacific, which increases exponentially with decreasing oxygen.

    • Mark Trimmer
    • , Panagiota-Myrsini Chronopoulou
    •  & Kevin J. Purdy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hydrogen build-up in geological nuclear waste repositories poses risks, but it may be alleviated by H2 consumption by deep subsurface microbial communities. Here, the authors inject H2 in a borehole and use metagenomics and metaproteomics to identify a carbon cycle driven by autotrophic H2oxidizers.

    • Alexandre Bagnoud
    • , Karuna Chourey
    •  & Rizlan Bernier-Latmani

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Climate warming has a wide range of effects on biodiversity. Here, Zhou et al. show that although variation in environmental temperature is a primary driver of soil microbial biodiversity, microbes show much lower rates of turnover across temperature gradients than other major taxa.

    • Jizhong Zhou
    • , Ye Deng
    •  & James H. Brown

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Atmospheric methane may be consumed by microorganisms in soil, but the mechanisms behind high-affinity methane oxidization remain poorly understood. Here, Jia et al. show that known methanotrophic bacteria are responsible for atmospheric methane uptake in periodically drained wetland ecosystems.

    • Yuanfeng Cai
    • , Yan Zheng
    •  & Zhongjun Jia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soil surface temperature, which affects many biogeochemical processes, depends on soil albedo. Here, Couradeau et al.show that some cyanobacteria can increase the temperature of arid-land soil surface by as much as 10 °C through the accumulation of a sunscreen metabolite.

    • Estelle Couradeau
    • , Ulas Karaoz
    •  & Ferran Garcia-Pichel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fitness advantages conferred on species living at low density is thought to be one mechanism by which stable biodiversity is maintained. Here, Liu et al. show that recruitment of seedlings in high-density populations of a subtropical tree is suppressed by soil pathogens, with little effect at low-density.

    • Yu Liu
    • , Suqin Fang
    •  & Fangliang He

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Belowground soil biota play key roles in maintaining proper ecosystem functioning, but studies on their extinction ecology are sparse. Here, Veresoglou et al. review the risks to soil biota posed by global change, and highlight the technical challenges involved in identifying extinction events.

    • Stavros D. Veresoglou
    • , John M. Halley
    •  & Matthias C. Rillig

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are thought to play a central role in the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes. Here, the authors identify novel antibiotic resistance genes in WWTPs and show that only a few of the most abundant resistance genes are found outside the WWTP environment.

    • Christian Munck
    • , Mads Albertsen
    •  & Morten O. A. Sommer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Production and consumption of metabolites by soil microorganisms are important for nutrient cycling and maintenance of microbial diversity. Here, Baran et al. study metabolite uptake and release by desert soil microorganisms, showing that coexisting microbes can have divergent substrate preferences.

    • Richard Baran
    • , Eoin L. Brodie
    •  & Trent R. Northen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Environmental enteropathy is a disorder of the small intestine that contributes to the persistence of childhood malnutrition worldwide. Here, Brownet al. show in mice that early-life malnourishment, in combination with exposure to commensal bacteria, remodels the small intestine to resemble features of the disease.

    • Eric M. Brown
    • , Marta Wlodarska
    •  & B. Brett Finlay

  • Article |

    The extent to which the microbial carbon pump contributes to the generation of marine refractory dissolved organic matter (RDOM) remains a matter of debate. Here, the authors report results from a 3-year mesocosm study, and show that most of the microbial DOM is different from RDOM in the ocean.

    • Helena Osterholz
    • , Jutta Niggemann
    •  & Thorsten Dittmar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Planctomycetes appear to differ from all other bacteria in their cellular organization and their apparent lack of a peptidoglycan (PG) cell wall. Here Jeske et al. show that Planctomycetes do possess a typical PG cell wall and that their cellular architecture resembles that of Gram-negative bacteria.

    • Olga Jeske
    • , Margarete Schüler
    •  & Christian Jogler

  • Article |

    Dimethylsulphide (DMS) is a volatile compound produced by marine microbes through degradation of dimethylsulphoniopropionate (DMSP). Here, Carrión et al.describe an alternative pathway for DMS production from methanethiol that is widespread among bacteria, especially from soil environments.

    • O. Carrión
    • , A. R. J. Curson
    •  & J. D. Todd

  • Article |

    Little is known about certain bacterial phyla because of our current inability to grow them in the lab. Here, Luef et al.combine metagenomics and ultrastuctural analyses to show that some of these bacteria have a very small cell size, tightly packed DNA, few ribosomes and diverse pili-like structures.

    • Birgit Luef
    • , Kyle R. Frischkorn
    •  & Jillian F. Banfield

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Horizontal gene transfers are known to play an important role in prokaryote evolution but their impact and prevalence in eukaryotes is less clear. Here, the authors sequence the genomes of cheese making fungi P. roqueforti and P. camemberti, and provide evidence for recent horizontal transfers of a large genomic region.

    • Kevin Cheeseman
    • , Jeanne Ropars
    •  & Yves Brygoo

  • Article |

    In microbial biogeography, little is known about processes involved in soil bacterial diversity turnover. By conducting a wide-scale investigation, this study shows that dispersal limitation and environmental selection of bacteria are not mutually exclusive, highlighting the importance of landscape diversity.

    • L. Ranjard
    • , S. Dequiedt
    •  & P. Lemanceau

  • Article |

    Microbes appear to play an important role in carbon sequestration. Here, the composition of microbial residues in a California grassland with elevated carbon dioxide, warming and nitrogen deposition reveals that warming and nitrogen deposition can both alter the fraction of carbon derived from microbes in soils.

    • Chao Liang
    •  & Teri C. Balser

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