Title
Metagenomes of tropical soil-derived anaerobic switchgrass-adapted consortia with and without iron
Publication Date
2013
Journal or Book Title
Standards in Genomic Sciences
Abstract
Tropical forest soils decompose litter rapidly with frequent episodes of anoxia, making it likely that bacteria using alternate terminal electron acceptors (TEAs) such as iron play a large role in supporting decomposition under these conditions. The prevalence of many types of metabolism in litter deconstruction makes these soils useful templates for improving biofuel production. To investigate how iron availability affects decomposition, we cultivated feedstock-adapted consortia (FACs) derived from iron-rich tropical forest soils accustomed to experiencing frequent episodes of anaerobic conditions and frequently fluctuating redox. One consortium was propagated under fermenting conditions, with switchgrass as the sole carbon source in minimal media (SG only FACs), and the other consortium was treated the same way but received poorly crystalline iron as an additional terminal electron acceptor (SG + Fe FACs). We sequenced the metagenomes of both consortia to a depth of about 150 Mb each, resulting in a coverage of 26× for the more diverse SG + Fe FACs, and 81× for the relatively less diverse SG only FACs. Both consortia were able to quickly grow on switchgrass, and the iron-amended consortium exhibited significantly higher microbial diversity than the unamended consortium. We found evidence of higher stress in the unamended FACs and increased sugar transport and utilization in the iron-amended FACs. This work provides metagenomic evidence that supplementation of alternative TEAs may improve feedstock deconstruction in biofuel production.
DOI
10.4056/sigs.3377516
Pages
382-398
Volume
7
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
DeAngelis, Kristen; D'Haeseleer, Patrick; Chivian, Dylan; Simmons, Blake; Arkin, Adam P.; Mavromatis, Konstantinos; Malfatti, Stephanie; Tringe, Susannah; and Hazen, Terry C., "Metagenomes of tropical soil-derived anaerobic switchgrass-adapted consortia with and without iron" (2013). Standards in Genomic Sciences. 311.
10.4056/sigs.3377516