Marine microorganisms are important for the global nitrogen cycle, but marine nitrifiers, especially aerobic nitrite oxidizers, remain largely unexplored. To increase the number of cultured representatives of marine nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB), a bioreactor cultivation approach was adopted to first enrich nitrifiers and ultimately nitrite oxidizers from Dutch coastal North Sea water. With ...

High-valent iron species are powerful oxidizing agents in chemical and biological catalysis. The best characterized form of an Fe(V) equivalent described in biological systems is the combination of a b-type heme with Fe(IV)=O and a porphyrin or amino acid cation radical (termed Compound I). This work describes an alternative natural mechanism to store two oxidizing equivalents above the ferric ...

The discovery of complete ammonia oxidizers, comammox Nitrospira, represents a breakthrough in the history nitrification research. Nitrospira inopinata, which was obtained from an aquatic ecosystem, is only pure bacterial isolate reported so far. Ammonia oxidation kinetics N. inopinata indicated that they prefer oligotrophic lifestyle and may directly compete with ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA...

Here, for the first time, it is reported that some Mn oxides after a few hours convert to a nanolayered Mn oxide when the compounds are used as water-oxidizing catalysts in a water electrolysis device at near neutral pH and in the presence of LiClO4. The new nanolayered Mn oxide is more active than other Mn oxides toward water oxidation. This result is very important for artificial photosynthet...

Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria are believed to be an important source of the climatically important trace gas nitrous oxide (N(2)O). The genes for nitrite reductase (nirK) and nitric oxide reductase (norB), putatively responsible for nitrous oxide production, have been identified in several ammonia-oxidizing bacteria, but not in Nitrosospira strains that may dominate ammonia-oxidizing communities i...

The exact structure of the active site of intermediate Q, the methane-oxidizing species of soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO), and the reaction mechanism of Q with methane molecule are still not fully clear. To gain further insights into the structure and reaction mechanism, five diiron models of Q that differ in shape, oxidation state, spin state, and coordination number of the two iron cent...

Next to the benthic and pelagic compartments, the epiphyton of submerged macrophytes may offer an additional niche for ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in shallow freshwater lakes. In this study, we explored the potential activities and community compositions of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria of the epiphytic, benthic, and pelagic compartments of seven shallow freshwater lakes which differed in their tro...