Oxygenic photosynthesis is the most important bioenergetic event in the history of our planet—it evolved once within the Cyanobacteria, and remained largely unchanged as it was transferred to algae and plants via endosymbiosis. Manganese plays a fundamental role in this history because it lends the critical redox behavior of the water-oxidizing complex of photosystem II. Constraints from the ph...

BdbD is a thiol:disulfide oxidoreductase (TDOR) from Bacillus subtilis that functions to introduce disulfide bonds in substrate proteins/peptides on the outside of the cytoplasmic membrane and, as such, plays a key role in disulfide bond management. Here we demonstrate that the protein is membrane-associated in B. subtilis and present the crystal structure of the soluble part of the protein lac...

Carbonate communities: The activity of anaerobic methane oxidizing microbes facilitates precipitation of vast quantities of authigenic carbonate at methane seeps. Here we demonstrate the significant role of carbonate rocks in promoting diversity by providing unique habitat and food resources for macrofaunal assemblages at seeps on the Costa Rica margin (400-1850 m). The attendant fauna is surpr...

Collecting biofilm samples from drinking water distribution systems (DWDSs) is challenging due to limited access the pipes during regular operations. We report here analysis of microbial communities in and collected sensors installed a DWDS where monochloramine used as residual disinfectant. A total 52 14 bulk were 17 pipe sections representing different ages. Prokaryotic genome copies (bacteri...

A new species of Archaea grows at pH approximately 0.5 and approximately 40 degrees C in slime streamers and attached to pyrite surfaces at a sulfide ore body, Iron Mountain, California. This iron-oxidizing Archaeon is capable of growth at pH 0. This species represents a dominant prokaryote in the environment studied (slimes and sediments) and constituted up to 85% of the microbial community wh...

The recently discovered comammox bacteria have the potential to completely oxidize ammonia to nitrate. These microorganisms are part of the Nitrospira genus and are present in a variety of environments, including biological nutrient removal (BNR) systems. However, the physiological traits within and between comammox and nitrite-oxidizing bacterium (NOB)-like Nitrospira species have not been ana...

Ammonia oxidation, as the first step in the nitrification process, plays a central role in the global cycling of nitrogen. Although bacteria are traditionally considered to be responsible for ammonia oxidation, a role for archaea has been suggested by data from metagenomic studies and by the isolation of a marine, autotrophic, ammonia-oxidizing, non-thermophilic crenarchaeon. Evidence for ammon...

A highly selective, ultrasensitive (visual and instrumental detection limits of 40 nM and 0.1 nM, respectively), environmentally-friendly, simple and rapid colorimetric sensor was developed for the detection of copper(II) in water. This sensor is based on a novel signal-amplification mechanism involving reactive halide species (RHSs) including chlorides or bromides, which accelerate copper Fent...