Osmoregulation in freshwater anaerobic methane-oxidizing archaea under salt stress

Maider J. Echeveste Medrano, Andy O. Leu, Martin Pabst, Yuemei Lin, Simon J. McIlroy, Gene W. Tyson, Jitske van Ede, Irene Sánchez-Andrea, Cornelia U. Welte*, More Authors

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

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Abstract

Climate change–driven sea level rise threatens freshwater ecosystems and elicits salinity stress in microbiomes. Methane emissions in these systems are largely mitigated by methane-oxidizing microorganisms. Here, we characterized the physiological and metabolic response of freshwater methanotrophic archaea to salt stress. In our microcosm experiments, inhibition of methanotrophic archaea started at 1%. However, during gradual increase of salt up to 3% in a reactor over 12 weeks, the culture continued to oxidize methane. Using gene expression profiles and metabolomics, we identified a pathway for salt-stress response that produces the osmolyte of anaerobic methanotrophic archaea: N(ε)-acetyl-β-L-lysine. An extensive phylogenomic analysis on N(ε)-acetyl-β-L-lysine-producing enzymes revealed that they are widespread across both bacteria and archaea, indicating a potential horizontal gene transfer and a link to BORG extrachromosomal elements. Physicochemical analysis of bioreactor biomass further indicated the presence of sialic acids and the consumption of intracellular polyhydroxyalkanoates in anaerobic methanotrophs during salt stress.
Original languageEnglish
Article numberwrae137
Number of pages17
JournalISME Journal
Volume18
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024

Keywords

  • ANME
  • compatible solutes
  • metabolomics
  • methanotroph
  • salinity adaptation
  • Ca. Methanoperedens

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