DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Metatranscriptomic insights on gene expression and regulatory controls in Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis

Abstract

© 2016 International Society for Microbial Ecology All rights reserved. Previous studies on enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) have focused on reconstructing genomic blueprints for the model polyphosphate-accumulating organism Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis. Here, a time series metatranscriptome generated from enrichment cultures of Accumulibacter was used to gain insight into anerobic/aerobic metabolism and regulatory mechanisms within an EBPR cycle. Co-expressed gene clusters were identified displaying ecologically relevant trends consistent with batch cycle phases. Transcripts displaying increased abundance during anerobic acetate contact were functionally enriched in energy production and conversion, including upregulation of both cytoplasmic and membrane-bound hydrogenases demonstrating the importance of transcriptional regulation to manage energy and electron flux during anerobic acetate contact. We hypothesized and demonstrated hydrogen production after anerobic acetate contact, a previously unknown strategy for Accumulibacter to maintain redox balance. Genes involved in anerobic glycine utilization were identified and phosphorus release after anerobic glycine contact demonstrated, suggesting that Accumulibacter routes diverse carbon sources to acetyl-CoA formation via previously unrecognized pathways. A comparative genomics analysis of sequences upstream of co-expressed genes identified two statistically significant putative regulatory motifs. One palindromic motif was identified upstream of genes involved in PHA synthesis and acetate activation and is hypothesized to be amore » phaR binding site, hence representing a hypothetical PHA modulon. A second motif was identified ~35 base pairs (bp) upstream of a large and diverse array of genes and hence may represent a sigma factor bind ing site. This analysis provides a basis and framework for further investigations into Accumulibacter metabolism and the reconstruction of regulatory networks in uncultured organisms.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [2];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
  2. U.S. Dept. of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
USDOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI), Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1346927
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1379256
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
The ISME Journal
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 10; Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 1751-7362
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Citation Formats

Oyserman, Ben O., Noguera, Daniel R., del Rio, Tijana Glavina, Tringe, Susannah G., and McMahon, Katherine D. Metatranscriptomic insights on gene expression and regulatory controls in Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1038/ismej.2015.155.
Oyserman, Ben O., Noguera, Daniel R., del Rio, Tijana Glavina, Tringe, Susannah G., & McMahon, Katherine D. Metatranscriptomic insights on gene expression and regulatory controls in Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2015.155
Oyserman, Ben O., Noguera, Daniel R., del Rio, Tijana Glavina, Tringe, Susannah G., and McMahon, Katherine D. Tue . "Metatranscriptomic insights on gene expression and regulatory controls in Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2015.155. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1346927.
@article{osti_1346927,
title = {Metatranscriptomic insights on gene expression and regulatory controls in Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis},
author = {Oyserman, Ben O. and Noguera, Daniel R. and del Rio, Tijana Glavina and Tringe, Susannah G. and McMahon, Katherine D.},
abstractNote = {© 2016 International Society for Microbial Ecology All rights reserved. Previous studies on enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) have focused on reconstructing genomic blueprints for the model polyphosphate-accumulating organism Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis. Here, a time series metatranscriptome generated from enrichment cultures of Accumulibacter was used to gain insight into anerobic/aerobic metabolism and regulatory mechanisms within an EBPR cycle. Co-expressed gene clusters were identified displaying ecologically relevant trends consistent with batch cycle phases. Transcripts displaying increased abundance during anerobic acetate contact were functionally enriched in energy production and conversion, including upregulation of both cytoplasmic and membrane-bound hydrogenases demonstrating the importance of transcriptional regulation to manage energy and electron flux during anerobic acetate contact. We hypothesized and demonstrated hydrogen production after anerobic acetate contact, a previously unknown strategy for Accumulibacter to maintain redox balance. Genes involved in anerobic glycine utilization were identified and phosphorus release after anerobic glycine contact demonstrated, suggesting that Accumulibacter routes diverse carbon sources to acetyl-CoA formation via previously unrecognized pathways. A comparative genomics analysis of sequences upstream of co-expressed genes identified two statistically significant putative regulatory motifs. One palindromic motif was identified upstream of genes involved in PHA synthesis and acetate activation and is hypothesized to be a phaR binding site, hence representing a hypothetical PHA modulon. A second motif was identified ~35 base pairs (bp) upstream of a large and diverse array of genes and hence may represent a sigma factor bind ing site. This analysis provides a basis and framework for further investigations into Accumulibacter metabolism and the reconstruction of regulatory networks in uncultured organisms.},
doi = {10.1038/ismej.2015.155},
journal = {The ISME Journal},
number = 4,
volume = 10,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Nov 10 00:00:00 EST 2015},
month = {Tue Nov 10 00:00:00 EST 2015}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 64 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Identification of Polyphosphate-Accumulating Organisms and Design of 16S rRNA-Directed Probes for Their Detection and Quantitation
journal, March 2000


‘Candidatus Accumulibacter’ gene expression in response to dynamic EBPR conditions
journal, August 2010


Polyhydroxyalkanoates: an overview
journal, April 2003


Fast and accurate short read alignment with Burrows-Wheeler transform
journal, May 2009


Principles of transcriptional regulation and evolution of the metabolic system in E. coli
journal, October 2008

  • Seshasayee, A. S. N.; Fraser, G. M.; Babu, M. M.
  • Genome Research, Vol. 19, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1101/gr.079715.108

Crystal Structure of the "PhoU-Like" Phosphate Uptake Regulator from Aquifex aeolicus
journal, June 2005


Cost-Benefit Tradeoffs in Engineered lac Operons
journal, May 2012


Anaerobic metabolism of bacteria performing enhanced biological phosphate removal
journal, October 2000


Development of a revised metabolic model for the growth of phosphorus-accumulating organisms
journal, January 1998


Involvement of the TCA cycle in the anaerobic metabolism of polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs)
journal, March 2009


Proton motive force generation from stored polymers for the uptake of acetate under anaerobic conditions
journal, September 2007


Regulation of phasin expression and polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) granule formation in Ralstonia eutropha H16
journal, August 2002


Engineering a Cyanobacterial Cell Factory for Production of Lactic Acid
journal, August 2012

  • Angermayr, S. Andreas; Paszota, Michal; Hellingwerf, Klaas J.
  • Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 78, Issue 19
  • DOI: 10.1128/AEM.01587-12

Biological Aspects of Inorganic Polyphosphates
journal, June 1988


Glycine metabolism in anaerobes
journal, January 1994


Refined DNase-seq protocol and data analysis reveals intrinsic bias in transcription factor footprint identification
journal, December 2013

  • He, Housheng Hansen; Meyer, Clifford A.; Hu, Sheng'en Shawn
  • Nature Methods, Vol. 11, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.2762

Combining evidence using p-values: application to sequence homology searches
journal, February 1998


Comparative genomics of two ‘Candidatus Accumulibacter’ clades performing biological phosphorus removal
journal, July 2013

  • Flowers, Jason J.; He, Shaomei; Malfatti, Stephanie
  • The ISME Journal, Vol. 7, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1038/ismej.2013.117

Genome Reconstruction and Gene Expression of “ Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis” Clade IB Performing Biological Phosphorus Removal
journal, August 2014

  • Mao, Yanping; Yu, Ke; Xia, Yu
  • Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 48, Issue 17
  • DOI: 10.1021/es502642b

Analysis of E.Coli Pormoter sequences
journal, January 1987

  • Harley, Calvin B.; Reynolds, Robert P.
  • Nucleic Acids Research, Vol. 15, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1093/nar/15.5.2343

Cloning and nucleotide sequence of the gcv operon encoding the Escherichia coli glycine-cleavage system
journal, September 1993


The Cost of Expression of Escherichia coli lac Operon Proteins Is in the Process, Not in the Products
journal, February 2008


Cloning and nucleotide sequence of the gcv operon encoding the Escherichia coli glycine-cleavage system
journal, September 1993


SortMeRNA: fast and accurate filtering of ribosomal RNAs in metatranscriptomic data
journal, October 2012


Crystal structure of (R)-3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydrogenase PhaB from Ralstonia eutropha
journal, January 2014

  • Kim, Jieun; Chang, Jeong Ho; Kim, Eun-Jung
  • Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, Vol. 443, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2013.10.150

Molecular basis for biosynthesis and accumulation of polyhydroxyalkanoic acids in bacteria
journal, December 1992


MEME SUITE: tools for motif discovery and searching
journal, May 2009

  • Bailey, T. L.; Boden, M.; Buske, F. A.
  • Nucleic Acids Research, Vol. 37, Issue Web Server
  • DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkp335

Microbial communities involved in enhanced biological phosphorus removal from wastewater—a model system in environmental biotechnology
journal, June 2012

  • Nielsen, Per Halkjær; Saunders, Aaron Marc; Hansen, Aviaja Anna
  • Current Opinion in Biotechnology, Vol. 23, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.copbio.2011.11.027

Footprinting: A method for determining the sequence selectivity, affinity and kinetics of DNA-binding ligands
journal, June 2007


HTSeq--a Python framework to work with high-throughput sequencing data
journal, September 2014


Transcript and protein level analyses of the interactions among PhoB, PhoR, PhoU and CreC in response to phosphate starvation in Escherichia coli
journal, December 2007


Metaproteomics Provides Functional Insight into Activated Sludge Wastewater Treatment
journal, March 2008


Crystal Structure of a PhoU Protein Homologue: A NEW CLASS OF METALLOPROTEIN CONTAINING MULTINUCLEAR IRON CLUSTERS
journal, February 2005

  • Liu, Jinyu; Lou, Yun; Yokota, Hisao
  • Journal of Biological Chemistry, Vol. 280, Issue 16
  • DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M414117200

Long-chain acyl-CoA synthetases and fatty acid channeling
text, January 2007

  • Rosalind, Coleman,; Lei, Li,; Douglas, Mashek,
  • The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
  • DOI: 10.17615/m2ht-p111

Denitrification capabilities of two biological phosphorus removal sludges dominated by different ‘ Candidatus Accumulibacter’ clades
journal, December 2009


Java Treeview--extensible visualization of microarray data
journal, June 2004


Incorporating microbial ecology into the metabolic modelling of polyphosphate accumulating organisms and glycogen accumulating organisms
journal, September 2010


Biochemical model for enhanced biological phosphorus removal
journal, December 1986


Characterization of the Carboxysomal Carbonic Anhydrase CsoSCA from Halothiobacillus neapolitanus
journal, September 2006

  • Heinhorst, S.; Williams, E. B.; Cai, F.
  • Journal of Bacteriology, Vol. 188, Issue 23
  • DOI: 10.1128/JB.00990-06

Enrichment, Phylogenetic Analysis and Detection of a Bacterium That Performs Enhanced Biological Phosphate Removal in Activated Sludge
journal, September 1999

  • Hesselmann, Rolf P. X.; Werlen, Christoph; Hahn, Dittmar
  • Systematic and Applied Microbiology, Vol. 22, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1016/S0723-2020(99)80055-1

Long-chain acyl-CoA synthetases and fatty acid channeling
journal, August 2007


Global Analysis of Photosynthesis Transcriptional Regulatory Networks
journal, December 2014


Principles of transcriptional regulation and evolution of the metabolic system in E. coli
journal, October 2008

  • Seshasayee, A. S. N.; Fraser, G. M.; Babu, M. M.
  • Genome Research, Vol. 19, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1101/gr.079715.108

Microbiology and biochemistry of the enhanced biological phosphate removal process
journal, November 1998


Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis: Elusive Bacterium Responsible for Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal
journal, January 2014


Determination of Poly-β-Hydroxybutyrate and Poly-β-Hydroxyvalerate in Activated Sludge by Gas-Liquid Chromatography
journal, January 1988


Metabolic Engineering of Poly(3-Hydroxyalkanoates): From DNA to Plastic
journal, January 1999


Cost-Benefit Tradeoffs in Engineered lac Operons
journal, May 2012


Refined DNase-seq protocol and data analysis reveals intrinsic bias in transcription factor footprint identification
journal, December 2013

  • He, Housheng Hansen; Meyer, Clifford A.; Hu, Sheng'en Shawn
  • Nature Methods, Vol. 11, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.2762

Mapping and quantifying mammalian transcriptomes by RNA-Seq
journal, May 2008

  • Mortazavi, Ali; Williams, Brian A.; McCue, Kenneth
  • Nature Methods, Vol. 5, Issue 7, p. 621-628
  • DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1226

Enzymology, genetics, and regulation of membrane phospholipid synthesis in Escherichia coli
journal, September 1978


Bacterial community structures of phosphate-removing and non-phosphate-removing activated sludges from sequencing batch reactors.
journal, January 1995


Incorporating microbial ecology into the metabolic modelling of polyphosphate accumulating organisms and glycogen accumulating organisms
journal, September 2010


Global Analysis of Photosynthesis Transcriptional Regulatory Networks
journal, December 2014


The strong efficiency of the Escherichia coli gapA P1 promoter depends on a complex combination of functional determinants
journal, October 2004

  • Thouvenot, Benoit; Charpentier, Bruno; Branlant, Christiane
  • Biochemical Journal, Vol. 383, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1042/bj20040792

Intermediary Metabolism of Diplococcus Glycinophilus i.
journal, January 1961


The streptococcal collagen-like protein-1 (Scl1) is a significant determinant for biofilm formation by group A Streptococcus
journal, January 2011

  • Oliver-Kozup, Heaven A.; Elliott, Meenal; Bachert, Beth A.
  • BMC Microbiology, Vol. 11, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1186/1471-2180-11-262

Sequencing and comparison of yeast species to identify genes and regulatory elements
journal, May 2003

  • Kellis, Manolis; Patterson, Nick; Endrizzi, Matthew
  • Nature, Vol. 423, Issue 6937
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature01644

Engineering Cyanobacteria To Synthesize and Export Hydrophilic Products
journal, April 2010

  • Niederholtmeyer, H.; Wolfstadter, B. T.; Savage, D. F.
  • Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 76, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1128/AEM.00202-10

Polyhydroxyalkanoate Granules Are Complex Subcellular Organelles (Carbonosomes)
journal, March 2009


Enzymology, genetics, and regulation of membrane phospholipid synthesis in Escherichia coli.
journal, January 1978


Analysis of E.Coli Pormoter sequences
journal, January 1987

  • Harley, Calvin B.; Reynolds, Robert P.
  • Nucleic Acids Research, Vol. 15, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1093/nar/15.5.2343

Persistence of adoptively transferred T cells with a kinetically engineered IL-2 receptor agonist
journal, January 2020


Crystal structure of (R)-3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydrogenase PhaB from Ralstonia eutropha
journal, January 2014

  • Kim, Jieun; Chang, Jeong Ho; Kim, Eun-Jung
  • Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, Vol. 443, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2013.10.150

The Cost of Expression of Escherichia coli lac Operon Proteins Is in the Process, Not in the Products
journal, February 2008


SortMeRNA: fast and accurate filtering of ribosomal RNAs in metatranscriptomic data
journal, October 2012


Bacterial collagen-like proteins that form triple-helical structures
journal, June 2014


HTSeq--a Python framework to work with high-throughput sequencing data
journal, September 2014


Bacterial collagen-like proteins that form triple-helical structures
journal, June 2014


MEME SUITE: tools for motif discovery and searching
journal, May 2009

  • Bailey, T. L.; Boden, M.; Buske, F. A.
  • Nucleic Acids Research, Vol. 37, Issue Web Server
  • DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkp335

Footprinting: A method for determining the sequence selectivity, affinity and kinetics of DNA-binding ligands
journal, June 2007


Proton motive force generation from stored polymers for the uptake of acetate under anaerobic conditions
journal, September 2007


Java Treeview--extensible visualization of microarray data
journal, June 2004


Metagenomic analysis of two enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) sludge communities
journal, September 2006

  • Martín, Héctor García; Ivanova, Natalia; Kunin, Victor
  • Nature Biotechnology, Vol. 24, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1038/nbt1247

Denitrification capabilities of two biological phosphorus removal sludges dominated by different ‘ Candidatus Accumulibacter’ clades
journal, December 2009


Transcript and protein level analyses of the interactions among PhoB, PhoR, PhoU and CreC in response to phosphate starvation in Escherichia coli
journal, December 2007


The streptococcal collagen-like protein-1 (Scl1) is a significant determinant for biofilm formation by group A Streptococcus
journal, January 2011

  • Oliver-Kozup, Heaven A.; Elliott, Meenal; Bachert, Beth A.
  • BMC Microbiology, Vol. 11, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1186/1471-2180-11-262

Expanding our view of genomic diversity in C andidatus  Accumulibacter clades : Metabolic plasticity in Accumulibacter clades
journal, August 2014

  • Skennerton, Connor T.; Barr, Jeremy J.; Slater, Frances R.
  • Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 17, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.12582

Microbial communities involved in enhanced biological phosphorus removal from wastewater—a model system in environmental biotechnology
journal, June 2012

  • Nielsen, Per Halkjær; Saunders, Aaron Marc; Hansen, Aviaja Anna
  • Current Opinion in Biotechnology, Vol. 23, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.copbio.2011.11.027

Biological Aspects of Inorganic Polyphosphates
journal, June 1988


Poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) biosynthesis in Alcaligenes eutrophus H16
journal, September 1989


Works referencing / citing this record:

Compositional variation between high and low prokaryotic diversity coral reef biotopes translates to different predicted metagenomic gene content
journal, December 2019

  • Cleary, Daniel F. R.; Polónia, Ana Rita M.; Huang, Yusheng M.
  • Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Vol. 113, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1007/s10482-019-01364-7

Community proteogenomics reveals the systemic impact of phosphorus availability on microbial functions in tropical soil
journal, January 2018


Cyclic Metabolism as a Mode of Microbial Existence
journal, July 2019


Revealing metabolic flexibility of Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis through redox cofactor analysis and metabolic network modeling
posted_content, March 2019

  • da Silva, Leonor Guedes; Gamez, Karel Olavarria; Gomes, Joana Castro
  • BioRxiv
  • DOI: 10.1101/458331

Archaeal communities in sponge, sediment and water from marine lakes and open water habitats
journal, March 2019


A Critical Assessment of the Microorganisms Proposed to be Important to Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal in Full-Scale Wastewater Treatment Systems
journal, April 2017

  • Stokholm-Bjerregaard, Mikkel; McIlroy, Simon J.; Nierychlo, Marta
  • Frontiers in Microbiology, Vol. 8
  • DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.00718

“Candidatus Propionivibrio aalborgensis”: A Novel Glycogen Accumulating Organism Abundant in Full-Scale Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal Plants
journal, July 2016

  • Albertsen, Mads; McIlroy, Simon J.; Stokholm-Bjerregaard, Mikkel
  • Frontiers in Microbiology, Vol. 7
  • DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.01033

Mining traits for the enrichment and isolation of not-yet-cultured populations
journal, June 2019


Resolving the individual contribution of key microbial populations to enhanced biological phosphorus removal with Raman–FISH
journal, March 2019

  • Fernando, Eustace Y.; McIlroy, Simon Jon; Nierychlo, Marta
  • The ISME Journal, Vol. 13, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1038/s41396-019-0399-7

The environment selects: Modeling energy allocation in microbial communities under dynamic environments
preprint, July 2019

  • da Silva, Leonor Guedes; Tomás-Martínez, Sergio; van Loosdrecht, Mark C. M.
  • DOI: 10.1101/689174

Resolving the individual contribution of key microbial populations to enhanced biological phosphorus removal with Raman–FISH
journal, March 2019

  • Fernando, Eustace Y.; McIlroy, Simon Jon; Nierychlo, Marta
  • The ISME Journal, Vol. 13, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1038/s41396-019-0399-7

The environment selects: Modeling energy allocation in microbial communities under dynamic environments
preprint, July 2019

  • da Silva, Leonor Guedes; Tomás-Martínez, Sergio; van Loosdrecht, Mark C. M.
  • DOI: 10.1101/689174

Bacterial microcompartment-directed polyphosphate kinase promotes stable polyphosphate accumulation in E. coli
journal, February 2017

  • Liang, Mingzhi; Frank, Stefanie; Lünsdorf, Heinrich
  • Biotechnology Journal, Vol. 12, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1002/biot.201600415

Compositional analysis of archaeal communities in high and low microbial abundance sponges in the Misool coral reef system, Indonesia
journal, July 2018

  • Polónia, Ana Rita Moura; Cleary, Daniel Francis Richard; Coelho, Francisco José Riso da Costa
  • Marine Biology Research, Vol. 14, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1080/17451000.2018.1498977

The proteome of Tetrasphaera elongata is adapted to changing conditions in wastewater treatment plants
posted_content, April 2019

  • Herbst, Florian-Alexander; Dueholm, Morten S.; Wimmer, Reinhard
  • Proteomes
  • DOI: 10.1101/513143

A Critical Assessment of the Microorganisms Proposed to be Important to Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal in Full-Scale Wastewater Treatment Systems
journal, April 2017

  • Stokholm-Bjerregaard, Mikkel; McIlroy, Simon J.; Nierychlo, Marta
  • Frontiers in Microbiology, Vol. 8
  • DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.00718