Biodiversity of magnetotactic bacteria in the tropical marine environment of Singapore revealed by metagenomic analysis

Most studies on the diversity of magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) have been conducted on samples obtained from the Northern or the Southern hemispheres. The diversity of MTB in tropical Asia near the geo-equator, with a close-to-zero geomagnetic inclination, weak magnetic field and constantly high seawa...

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Main Authors: Tan, Shi Ming, Muhammad Hafiz Ismail, Cao, Bin
Other Authors: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2021
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/146081
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1460812022-04-09T20:11:27Z Biodiversity of magnetotactic bacteria in the tropical marine environment of Singapore revealed by metagenomic analysis Tan, Shi Ming Muhammad Hafiz Ismail Cao, Bin School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences and Engineering (SCELSE) Science::Biological sciences::Microbiology::Bacteria Science::Biological sciences::Microbiology::Microbial ecology Magnetotactic Bacteria Metagenomics Most studies on the diversity of magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) have been conducted on samples obtained from the Northern or the Southern hemispheres. The diversity of MTB in tropical Asia near the geo-equator, with a close-to-zero geomagnetic inclination, weak magnetic field and constantly high seawater temperature has never been explored. This study aims to decipher the diversity of MTB in the marine environment of Singapore through shotgun metagenomics. Although MTB has been acknowledged to be ubiquitous in aquatic environments, we did not observe magnetotactic behaviour in the samples. However, we detected the presence and determined the diversity of MTB through bioinformatic analyses. Metagenomic analysis suggested majority of the MTB in the seafloor sediments represents novel MTB taxa that cannot be classified at the species level. The relative abundance of MTB (∼0.2-1.69%) in the samples collected from the marine environment of Singapore was found to be substantially lower than studies for other regions. In contrast to other studies, the genera Magnetovibrio and Desulfamplus, but not Magnetococcus, were the dominant MTB. Additionally, we recovered 3 MTB genomic bins that are unclassified at the species level, with Magnetovibrio blakemorei being the closest-associated genome. All the recovered genomic bins contain homologs of at least 5 of the 7 mam genes but lack homologs for mamI, a membrane protein suggested to take part in the magenetosome invagination. This study fills in the knowledge gap of MTB biodiversity in the tropical marine environment near the geo-equator. Our findings will facilitate future research efforts aiming to unravel the ecological roles of MTB in the tropical marine environments as well as to bioprospecting novel MTB that have been adapted to tropical marine environments for biotechnological applications. National Research Foundation (NRF) Accepted version 2021-01-26T02:51:29Z 2021-01-26T02:51:29Z 2021 Journal Article Tan, S. M., Muhammad Hafiz Ismail, & Cao, B. (2021). Biodiversity of magnetotactic bacteria in the tropical marine environment of Singapore revealed by metagenomic analysis. Environmental Research, 194, 110714-. doi:10.1016/j.envres.2021.110714 0013-9351 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/146081 10.1016/j.envres.2021.110714 33422504 194 110714 en Environmental Research © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. This paper was published in Environmental Research and is made available with permission of Elsevier Inc. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Science::Biological sciences::Microbiology::Bacteria
Science::Biological sciences::Microbiology::Microbial ecology
Magnetotactic Bacteria
Metagenomics
spellingShingle Science::Biological sciences::Microbiology::Bacteria
Science::Biological sciences::Microbiology::Microbial ecology
Magnetotactic Bacteria
Metagenomics
Tan, Shi Ming
Muhammad Hafiz Ismail
Cao, Bin
Biodiversity of magnetotactic bacteria in the tropical marine environment of Singapore revealed by metagenomic analysis
description Most studies on the diversity of magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) have been conducted on samples obtained from the Northern or the Southern hemispheres. The diversity of MTB in tropical Asia near the geo-equator, with a close-to-zero geomagnetic inclination, weak magnetic field and constantly high seawater temperature has never been explored. This study aims to decipher the diversity of MTB in the marine environment of Singapore through shotgun metagenomics. Although MTB has been acknowledged to be ubiquitous in aquatic environments, we did not observe magnetotactic behaviour in the samples. However, we detected the presence and determined the diversity of MTB through bioinformatic analyses. Metagenomic analysis suggested majority of the MTB in the seafloor sediments represents novel MTB taxa that cannot be classified at the species level. The relative abundance of MTB (∼0.2-1.69%) in the samples collected from the marine environment of Singapore was found to be substantially lower than studies for other regions. In contrast to other studies, the genera Magnetovibrio and Desulfamplus, but not Magnetococcus, were the dominant MTB. Additionally, we recovered 3 MTB genomic bins that are unclassified at the species level, with Magnetovibrio blakemorei being the closest-associated genome. All the recovered genomic bins contain homologs of at least 5 of the 7 mam genes but lack homologs for mamI, a membrane protein suggested to take part in the magenetosome invagination. This study fills in the knowledge gap of MTB biodiversity in the tropical marine environment near the geo-equator. Our findings will facilitate future research efforts aiming to unravel the ecological roles of MTB in the tropical marine environments as well as to bioprospecting novel MTB that have been adapted to tropical marine environments for biotechnological applications.
author2 School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
author_facet School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Tan, Shi Ming
Muhammad Hafiz Ismail
Cao, Bin
format Article
author Tan, Shi Ming
Muhammad Hafiz Ismail
Cao, Bin
author_sort Tan, Shi Ming
title Biodiversity of magnetotactic bacteria in the tropical marine environment of Singapore revealed by metagenomic analysis
title_short Biodiversity of magnetotactic bacteria in the tropical marine environment of Singapore revealed by metagenomic analysis
title_full Biodiversity of magnetotactic bacteria in the tropical marine environment of Singapore revealed by metagenomic analysis
title_fullStr Biodiversity of magnetotactic bacteria in the tropical marine environment of Singapore revealed by metagenomic analysis
title_full_unstemmed Biodiversity of magnetotactic bacteria in the tropical marine environment of Singapore revealed by metagenomic analysis
title_sort biodiversity of magnetotactic bacteria in the tropical marine environment of singapore revealed by metagenomic analysis
publishDate 2021
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/146081
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