Microbial community structure and dynamics in thermophilic composting viewed through metagenomics and metatranscriptomics

Citations Over TimeTop 1% of 2016 papers

Abstract

Composting is a promising source of new organisms and thermostable enzymes that may be helpful in environmental management and industrial processes. Here we present results of metagenomic- and metatranscriptomic-based analyses of a large composting operation in the São Paulo Zoo Park. This composting exhibits a sustained thermophilic profile (50 °C to 75 °C), which seems to preclude fungal activity. The main novelty of our study is the combination of time-series sampling with shotgun DNA, 16S rRNA gene amplicon, and metatranscriptome high-throughput sequencing, enabling an unprecedented detailed view of microbial community structure, dynamics, and function in this ecosystem. The time-series data showed that the turning procedure has a strong impact on the compost microbiota, restoring to a certain extent the population profile seen at the beginning of the process; and that lignocellulosic biomass deconstruction occurs synergistically and sequentially, with hemicellulose being degraded preferentially to cellulose and lignin. Moreover, our sequencing data allowed near-complete genome reconstruction of five bacterial species previously found in biomass-degrading environments and of a novel biodegrading bacterial species, likely a new genus in the order Bacillales. The data and analyses provided are a rich source for additional investigations of thermophilic composting microbiology.

Related Papers

• → Molecular Chaperones in Thermophilic Eubacteria and Archaea(2013)3 cited
• Cellular polyamines of alkaliphilic, halophilic and thermophilic methanogens, and acidophilic and alkaliphilic extreme halophiles, and acidophilic thermophiles belonging to the domain Archaea : Polyamine catalogues of bacterial (eubacterial) and archaeal (archaebacterial) extremophiles (7)(2013)
• → Cell Wall Structures of Mesophilic, Thermophilic and Hyperthermophilic Archaea(2006)2 cited
• → Sugar Metabolic Enzymes(2013)
• → Enzymes from Extreme Thermophilic and Hyperthermophilic Archaea and Bacteria(1995)