As part of a study to elucidate the environmental parameters that control microbial perchlorate respiration, we investigated the reduction of perchlorate by the dissimilatory perchlorate reducer Dechlorosoma suillum under a diverse set of environmental conditions. Our results demonstrated that perchlorate reduction by D. suillum only occurred under anaerobic conditions in the presence of perchl...

Several benzoic, cinnamic and phenylacetic acid derivatives were screened with 20 micro-organisms, mainly fungi, for the reduction of their carboxylic function. For all organisms several compounds were reduced in fairly good yields up to 80% to the corresponding alcohol. No general rule could be established, concerning the substitution pattern, as to which compounds were transformed to the alco...

When bacterial lineages make the transition from free-living or facultatively parasitic life cycles to permanent associations with hosts, they undergo a major loss of genes and DNA. Complete genome sequences are providing an understanding of how extreme genome reduction affects evolutionary directions and metabolic capabilities of obligate pathogens and symbionts.

1 Limnology Research Group, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, 07743 Jena, Germany 2 Department of Ecological Microbiology, University of Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany * present address: Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA Received: 15 April 2008 – Accepted: 21 April 2008 – Published: 27 May 2008 Correspondence to: K. Küsel (kirsten...

The ratio of arsenite (As(III)) to arsenate (As(V)) in soils and natural waters is often controlled by the activity of As-transforming microorganisms. Phosphate is a chemical analog to As(V) and, consequently, may competitively inhibit microbial uptake and enzymatic binding of As(V), thus preventing its reduction to the more toxic, mobile, and bioavailable form - As(III). Five As-transforming b...

J . C A M E R O N T H R A S H , † J . I A N V A N T R U M P , † K A R R I E A . W E B E R , † E L I S A B E T H M I L L E R , ‡ L A U R I E A . A C H E N B A C H , ‡ A N D J O H N D . C O A T E S * , † , § Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, Department of Microbiology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois 62901, and Eart...

Niche dependent differential gene loss and overlapping genes have been proposed as means of achieving genome reduction by retaining indispensable genes and compressing maximum amount of information in available sequence space. Herein, we analyzed the differential gene loss and overlapping genes in bacterial genomes with different lifestyles. Our results clearly suggest that gene loss and overla...

The phylogenetic positions of sulfate-reducing organisms, as revealed from comparisons of small-subunit ribosomal RNA (SSU rRNA), are spread over both the Archaeal and Bacterial domains, though when they evolved is uncertain. The lowbranching positions of some of these groups on the Tree of Life have inspired the hypothesis that the metabolic innovation of microbial sulfate reduction is of grea...

In post-Cambrian time, life on Earth experienced 5 major extinction events, likely instigated by adverse environmental conditions. Biodiversity loss among marine taxa, for at least 3 of these mass extinction events (Late Devonian, end-Permian and end-Triassic), has been connected with widespread oxygen-depleted and sulfide-bearing marine water. Furthermore, geochemical and sedimentary evidence ...

As an important component of soil organic matter (SOM), the transformation of pyrogenic carbon plays a critical role in the biogeochemical cycles of carbon and other redox-active elements such as iron (Fe). Herein, we studied the influences of wheat straw-derived biochars on the microbial reduction of 100 mM of hematite by the dissimilatory metal reducing bacteria Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 und...