Ecological distribution and population physiology defined by proteomics in a natural microbial community

Journal Article · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2010 · Molecular Systems Biology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/msb.2010.30· OSTI ID:985800

Muller, R ^[1]; Denef, Vincent ^[2]; Kalnejals, Linda ^[2]; Suttle, K Blake ^[3]; Thomas, Brian ^[2]; Wilmes, P ^[2]; Smith, Richard L. ^[4]; Nordstrom, D Kirk ^[4]; McCleskey, R Blaine ^[4]; Shah, Manesh B ^[5]; Verberkmoes, Nathan C ^[5]; Banfield, Jillian F. ^[2]

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1. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)
2. University of California, Berkeley
3. Imperial College, London
4. U.S. Geological Survey, Boulder, CO
5. ORNL

An important challenge in microbial ecology is developing methods that simultaneously examine the physiology of organisms at the molecular level and their ecosystem level interactions in complex natural systems.We integrated extensive proteomic, geochemical, and biological information from 28 microbial communities collected from an acid mine drainage environment and representing a range of biofilm development stages and geochemical conditions to evaluate how the physiologies of the dominant and less abundant organisms change along environmental gradients. The initial colonist dominates across all environments, but its proteome changes between two stable states as communities diversify, implying that interspecies interactions affect this organism s metabolism. Its overall physiology is robust to abiotic environmental factors, but strong correlations exist between these factors and certain subsets of proteins, possibly accounting for its wide environmental distribution. Lower abundance populations are patchier in their distribution, and proteomic data indicate that their environmental niches may be constrained by specific sets of abiotic environmental factors. This research establishes an effective strategy to investigate ecological relationships between microbial physiology and the environment for whole communities in situ

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 985800
• Journal Information: Molecular Systems Biology, Vol. 6, Issue 1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
ABUNDANCE
ACID MINE DRAINAGE
COMMUNITIES
DISTRIBUTION
ECOLOGY
ECOSYSTEMS
METABOLISM
PHYSIOLOGY
PROTEINS
community structure
metaproteomics
microbial ecology
model community
succession