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research article

Meta-omics-aided isolation of an elusive anaerobic arsenic-methylating soil bacterium

Viacava, Karen  
•
Qiao, Jiangtao  
•
Janowczyk, Andrew
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March 25, 2022
The ISME Journal

Soil microbiomes harbor unparalleled functional and phylogenetic diversity and are sources of novel metabolisms. However, extracting isolates with a targeted function from complex microbiomes is not straightforward, particularly if the associated phenotype does not lend itself to high-throughput screening. Here, we tackle the methylation of arsenic (As) in anoxic soils. By analogy to mercury, As methylation was proposed to be catalyzed by sulfate-reducing bacteria. However, to date, there are no anaerobic isolates capable of As methylation, whether sulfate-reducing or otherwise. The isolation of such a microorganism has been thwarted by the fact that the anaerobic bacteria harboring a functional arsenite S-adenosylmethionine methyltransferase (ArsM) tested to date did not methylate As in pure culture. Additionally, fortuitous As methylation can result from the release of non-specific methyltransferases upon lysis. Thus, we combined metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and metaproteomics to identify the microorganisms actively methylating As in anoxic soil-derived microbial cultures. Based on the metagenome-assembled genomes of microorganisms expressing ArsM, we isolated Paraclostridium sp. strain EML, which was confirmed to actively methylate As anaerobically. This work is an example of the application of meta-omics to the isolation of elusive microorganisms.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1038/s41396-022-01220-z
Author(s)
Viacava, Karen  
Qiao, Jiangtao  
Janowczyk, Andrew
Poudel, Suresh
Jacquemin, Nicolas  
Meibom, Karin Lederballe  
Shrestha, Him K.
Reid, Matthew C.
Hettich, Robert L.
Bernier-Latmani, Rizlan  
Date Issued

2022-03-25

Published in
The ISME Journal
Start page

1751

End page

7370

URL
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41396-022-01220-z
Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
EML  
Available on Infoscience
March 17, 2022
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/186456
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