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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, May 2006, p. 3236-3244, Vol. 72, No. 5
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AEM.72.5.3236-3244.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Haichun Gao,1,3,
Hojatollah Vali,4
David W. Kennedy,5
Zamin K. Yang,1
Weimin Gao,1
Alice C. Dohnalkova,5
Raymond D. Stapleton,6
Ji-Won Moon,1
Tommy J. Phelps,1
James K. Fredrickson,5 and
Jizhong Zhou1,7*
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee,1 Chonnam National University, Gwangju, South Korea,2 Center for Microbial Ecology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan,3 McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada,4 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington,5 Merck & Co., Inc., Elkton, Virginia,6 Institute for Environmental Genomics, Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 730197
Received 9 May 2005/ Accepted 5 February 2006
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A number of metal-reducing bacteria have been isolated and characterized from a variety of habitats, and much work has focused on Shewanella oneidensis and Geobacter spp. (17). The genus Shewanella was first described two decades ago (20). All members of this genus reported so far are facultatively anaerobic, gram-negative, motile by polar flagella, rod-like, and generally associated with aquatic or marine habitats (4, 5, 11, 12, 13, 25, 26, 31, 38). Although most Shewanella species are mesophilic, psychrotolerant and psychrophilic bacteria in the Shewanella genus have been isolated recently (4, 43). Since a vast majority of the world's surface is covered by oceans, cold deep-sea environments (
4°C) represent a significant portion of potential microbial habitants, and thus, psychrophilic and psychrotolerant Shewanella species could be important in the overall biogeochemical processes of metals and carbon.
We have previously isolated more than 10 Shewanella strains from a variety of marine environments (33). Strain PV-4, isolated from iron-rich microbial mats at an active, deep-sea, hydrothermal Naha vent of Loihi Seamount, Hawaii, is the first Shewanella strain capable of reducing metals in a wide range of temperatures, from 0 to 37°C. Although strain PV-4 was chosen for genome sequencing by the Shewanella Federation at the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute and the genome draft was released recently (http://www.jgi.doe.gov), phenotypic and physiological characteristics of this isolate remain undefined. In this study, we have examined the characteristics of metal reduction and iron mineralization of strain PV-4 under various conditions. In addition, we have determined the genetic traits that allow the genetic manipulation of this strain. Our results demonstrated that strain PV-4 has unique physiological characteristics and is transformable by conjugation.
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Physiological characterization.
This study focused mainly on Fe(III) reduction and biomineralization by strain PV-4 in a wide range of temperatures, from 0 to 37°C, which was examined quantitatively. The reduction of other metals was tested in a qualitative way. For experiments under anaerobic conditions, a defined medium (DM) was used in pressure tubes unless otherwise noted. The basal part of DM contained the following ingredients (per liter): (NaHCO3, 2.5 g; CaCl2 · 2H2O, 0.08 g; NH4Cl, 1.0 g; MgCl2 · 6H2O, 0.2 g; NaCl, 10.0 g; HEPES, 7.2 g; resazurin (0.01%), 0.1 g; yeast extract, 0.5 g; trace minerals, 10 ml; vitamin solution, 1 ml (16). No exogenous electron carrier substance (i.e., anthraquinone disulfonate) or reducing agent (i.e., cysteine) was added to the medium. The trace mineral solution contained (per liter) 1.5 g of nitrilotriacetic acid, 0.2 g of FeCl2 · 4H2O, 0.1 g of MgCl2 · 6H2O, 0.02 g of sodium tungstate, 0.1 g of MnCl2 · 4H2O, 0.1 g of CoCl2 · 6H2O, 1 g of CaCl2 · 2H2O, 0.05 g of ZnCl2, 0.002 g of CuCl2 · 2H2O, 0.005 g of H3BO3, 0.01 g of sodium molybdate, 1 g of NaCl, 0.017 g of Na2SeO3, and 0.024 g of NiCl2 · 6H2O. The vitamin solution contained (per liter) 0.02 g of biotin, 0.02 g of folic acid, 0.1 g of B6 (pyridoxine) HCl, 0.05 g of B1 (thiamine) HCl, 0.05 g of B2 (riboflavin), 0.05 g of nicotinic acid (niacin), 0.05 g of pantothenic acid, 0.001 g of B12 (cyanobalamine) crystalline, 0.05 g of p-aminobenzoic acid, and 0.05 g of lipoic acid (thioctic).
To assess the bacterial capability of metal reduction and mineral formation, various electron acceptors, including ferric citrate (10 to 20 mM), ferric EDTA (10 mM), akaganeite (
70 mM), Co(III)-EDTA (1.5 mM), potassium chromate (0.5 mM), and uranyl carbonate (5 mM), were examined at 8°C with lactate (10 mM) as an electron donor. A high concentration of U(VI) was used so that the resulting color change (yellow to colorless) could be confidently recorded. The effects of temperature (0 to 45°C), pH (6.5 to 9.6), and salinity (0.05% to 7%) on microbial metal reduction and mineral formation were also examined using akaganeite (70 mM) as an electron acceptor and lactate (10 mM) as an electron donor. The medium at 0°C was maintained on ice and was not frozen because of its high ionic strength. The pH was adjusted using NaOH or HCl and monitored following the incubation period. Growth of strain PV-4 on Fe(III)-citrate (20 mM) with lactate (10 mM) as an electron donor was quantitatively assessed under anaerobic conditions. The optimal growth temperature was determined based on the combination of growth rate and Fe(III) reduction rate. In all experiments, uninoculated controls were used to rule out contamination or abiotic metal reductions.
A variety of factors that influenced metal reduction and mineral formation, including medium pH, incubation temperature, electron donors, electron acceptors, metals, and the headspace gas composition, were examined. To determine the range of growth substrates, PV-4 cells were inoculated in anaerobic basal medium with lactate (10 mM), acetate (10 mM), pyruvate (10 mM), succinate (10 mM), xylan (1%), cellulose (1%), or H2 (80% H2-20% CO2, vol/vol) as an electron donor and akaganeite (ß-FeOOH,
70 mM) as an electron acceptor and incubated at 8°C in the dark for several days. The akaganeite was prepared by neutralizing a solution of 0.4 M FeCl3 with 10 M NaOH as described previously (27, 42). X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed the structure of akaganeite (29).
To understand the effect of headspace atmosphere on iron mineralogy, the anaerobic media were prepared and incubated under three different headspace atmospheres: N2, N2-CO2 (80:20, vol/vol), and H2-CO2 (80:20, vol/vol) with akaganeite (
70 mM) as an electron acceptor (28). M1, which is used extensively for Shewanella strains (http://www.shewanella.org), was tested to examine the effect of CO2 on iron biomineralization in addition to the bicarbonate-buffered DM. In the case of using lactate (10 mM) as an electron donor, N2 and N2-CO2 headspaces were used, while H2-CO2 headspace atmosphere was used when H2 served as the electron donor. Incubation time ranged from 2 weeks to 6 months. Abiotic controls were established for each treatment.
Quantitative assessment of HFO reduction.
Quantitative assessment of hydrous ferric oxide (HFO) (
50 mM) reduction by strain PV-4 was conducted as described previously (6, 8). To determine the capability of strain PV-4 to reduce HFO, Shewanella putrefaciens strain CN-32 was included for comparison. Briefly, exponentially growing cells in DM with 30 mM PIPES [piperazine-N,N'-bis(2-ethanesulfonic acid)] and 20 mM lactate were diluted in Balsch tubes containing 50 mM HFO to a final optical density at 600 nm of 0.075. HFO treatments were sampled at 4 h, 8 h, 24 h, 48 h, 7 days, 14 days, and 21 days by adding 0.5 ml of cultures to 0.5 ml 1 M HCl in an anaerobic glove bag and allowing the cultures to sit overnight. Fe(II) concentrations in the samples and in the abiotic controls were determined by the ferrozine method (41).
Bacterial cell counting and chemical analysis.
Bacterial growth with Fe(III)-citrate was quantified by direct cell counting using epifluorescence microscopy of acridine orange-stained samples as described previously (10, 14, 40). Light microscopy was used to visualize wet mounts and acridine orange-stained filters with a Nikon Phase Contrast Optiphot microscope (Nikon, Japan).
To examine the chemical conditions of metal reduction and mineral formation by PV-4, subsamples (0.1 ml) of bacterial cultures and abiotic controls were taken from the culture bottles at different times, and Eh and pH were measured at room temperature in an anaerobic chamber (41). Fe(II) concentrations in the cultures and in abiotic controls were determined by the ferrozine method (34, 41). Using this method, a 0.1-ml sample was added to 2 ml of anaerobic 0.5 M HCl solution. After 15 min, 0.1 ml of the mixture was added to 3 ml of ferrozine (1 g/liter) in 50 mM HEPES buffer at pH 7. The sample was mixed, filtered through a Whatman syringe filter (13-mm filter diameter, 0.2-µm pore diameter), and measured for maximum absorbance at 562 nm. A standard for the ferrozine assay was prepared with ferrous ethylene diammonium sulfate dissolved in 0.5 M HCl. Reduction of Co(III) to Co(II) was measured as the decrease in the Co(III) concentration. Subsamples (0.5 ml to 1 ml) were diluted with 2 ml of distilled water and filtered as described above. The concentration of Co(III) was measured for maximum absorbance at 548 nm (40).
Morphological and mineralogical characterization.
The morphology, mineralogy, and chemistry of the precipitated or transformed mineral phases were examined under a JEOL JSM-35CF (JEOL Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) scanning electron microscope with energy-dispersive X-ray analysis. The mineralogical composition of the precipitated or transformed phases was determined using XRD. All XRDs were performed using a Scintag (Scintag, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA) XDS 2000 diffractometer (40 kV, 35 mV) equipped with Co-K
radiation with a scan rate of 2° 2
/min. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to study the morphology of the isolate and precipitated crystalline iron minerals (42). Cells of strain PV-4 were grown either aerobically in tryptic soy broth (Difco, Detroit, Mich.) at 30°C or anaerobically in DM using Fe(III)-citrate (15 mM) as an electron acceptor and lactate (10 mM) as an electron donor at 8°C. Culture medium containing microorganisms, organic matter, and iron minerals was fixed with 2.5% glutaraldehyde in 0.1 M cacodylate. After being washed with buffer and an alcohol-water solution, samples were dehydrated with propylene oxide and embedded in a low-viscosity, thermally curving epoxy resin. Ultrathin sections (70 to 80 nm) were cut from resin blocks with a diamond knife and transferred to 300-mesh, formvar-coated Cu TEM grids for image analysis with a JEOL FX 2000 apparatus equipped with an energy-dispersive X-ray detector.
Genetic characterization.
Luria-Bertani (LB) medium (Difco, Detroit, Mich.) was generally used for characterization under aerobic conditions unless otherwise noted. To determine the genome size of strain PV-4, agarose-embedded chromosomal DNA was prepared using a modification of protocols described in the instruction manual and application guide that accompanied the CHEF-DRII pulsed-field electrophoresis system (Bio-Rad). Endonuclease cleavage of DNA in agarose blocks was done as described previously (15, 35). The genome size of PV-4 was calculated based on the estimated sizes of resultant fragments derived from enzyme digestion.
The antibiotic susceptibility of strain PV-4 was assessed at room temperature using a method described previously (1). Experiments were conducted in triplicate. The ability of strain PV-4 to acquire exogenous DNA was examined with either conjugation or electroporation. Conjugation was performed with Escherichia coli WM3064 (30) hosting plasmid pCM157 (21) as described previously (36). Electroporation was conducted using a BTX Electro Cell Manipulator ECM 600 (BTX Electronic Genetics, San Diego, CA) according to either the standard protocol for E. coli provided by the manufacturer or the protocol for S. oneidensis MR-1 as described previously (24).
Nucelotide sequence accession number.
The nucleotide sequence of the 16S rRNA gene of strain PV-4 determined in this study has been deposited in GenBank under accession number DQ286387.
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1.6 µm in length and
1.0 µm in diameter. However, the cell morphologies varied under different growth conditions. Under anaerobic conditions at 8°C, cells were narrower (
1.6 µm in length and
0.4 µm in diameter) and exhibited less condensed cytoplasmic materials (data not shown). Similar morphologies were observed in cells grown at room temperature under anaerobic conditions (data not shown).
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FIG. 1. Transmission electron micrograph of Shewanella sp. strain PV-4 grown in tryptic soy broth aerobically at 30°C.
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Among the organic compounds tested, PV-4 cells were able to use lactate, formate, and pyruvate as well as hydrogen (H2) as the electron donors for the reduction of akaganeite and formed magnetite at 8°C. However, growth was not observed when cells were provided with succinate, xylan, cellulose, or acetate as an electron donor to reduce Fe(III).
The temperature range for growth using Fe(III)-citrate (15 mM) as an electron acceptor and lactate (10 mM) as an electron donor was between 0°C and 37°C (Fig. 2). While cells grew at virtually the same rate at temperatures ranging from 17 to 24°C under the conditions tested, the fastest rate of Fe(III)-citrate reduction was observed at 18°C. We therefore concluded that the optimum temperature was approximately 18°C. The generation time was approximately 101 h at 0°C, 24.5 h at 8°C, 0.7 h at 18°C, 2.8 h at 28°C, and 22 h at 37°C. At 4°C and over 45°C, the cells remained viable but did not reproduce. Although PV-4 was isolated from a microbial mat in seawater, a high NaCl concentration was not essential for growth, as cells were able to grow in a salinity range of 0.05 to 5% (wt/vol) NaCl at 8°C using lactate (10 mM) as an electron donor. When the isolate was grown in the presence of Fe(III)-citrate or akaganeite at 8°C, the pH optimum was approximately 8.0, with a pH range of 6.5 to 9.5.
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FIG. 2. Generation time of PV-4 cells. Cells were grown using Fe(III)-citrate (15 mM) as an electron acceptor and lactate (10 mM) as an electron donor at each temperature tested.
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Quantitative reduction of ferrihydrites.
Since the iron-rich microbial mats at Loihi are dominated by noncrystalline ferrihydrites, HFO reduction by strain PV-4 was quantitatively determined. In this experiment, S. putrefaciens CN-32 was used as a positive control. Both PV-4 and CN-32 were grown under anaerobiosis in DM with 30 mM PIPES and 20 mM lactate. The samples were collected and processed as described in Materials and Methods. The result is presented in Fig. 3, which clearly shows that HFO reduction occurred in strain PV-4. No significant difference in the reduction rates between these two strains was observed in the first 50-h period. However, after 50 h, PV-4 exhibited a slightly weaker capability of reducing HFO than that of S. putrefaciens CN-32.
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FIG. 3. Reduction of 50 mM HFO by strain PV-4 and S. putrefaciens CN-42 with 20 mM lactate in DM at room temperature.
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FIG. 4. XRD analysis of the black magnetic minerals formed at various temperatures. Cells were grown using akaganeite (ß-FeOOH; 70 mM) as an electron acceptor and lactate (10 mM) as an electron donor, harvested, and prepared for transmission electron microscopy as described in Materials and Methods. Reduction of akaganeite was observed at all tested temperatures ranging from 0 to 37°C.
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FIG. 5. TEM images of magnetite formed by PV-4 at various temperatures. A, 4°C; B, 8°C; C, 18°C; D, 28°C; E, 37°C. Small crystals were formed at temperatures below 8°C (A and B), while large crystals were produced at higher temperatures (C, D, and E).
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The gas composition of the headspace atmosphere appeared to affect mineral formation. Under N2 headspace, the akaganeite was predominantly reduced to magnetite, indicated by color changes from reddish brown to black and further confirmed by XRD analysis in either bicarbonate-buffered DM or M1. In contrast, under N2-CO2 and H2-CO2, a mixture of magnetite and siderite was formed, indicated by reddish-to-brownish-black color changes and confirmed by XRD analysis (Fig. 6A to E). Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis of bacterial cells showed that the cells were significantly enriched with Fe (Fig. 6F). Interestingly, siderite formed by PV-4 at various temperatures appeared globular, suggesting that temperatures may not have a role in the process. However, the globule was different from the cube-shaped siderite formed by a mesophilic Fe(III)-reducing bacterium, Geobacter metallireducens GS-15 (19). Further analysis revealed that under an H2-CO2 atmosphere, siderite (FeCO3) was the principal reduced iron mineral. It appeared that an H2-CO2 atmosphere provides a favorable environment for PV-4 to complete the reduction of a poorly crystalline iron oxide, akaganeite (ß-FeOOH).
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FIG. 6. Transmission electron microscope images (A to D) and scanning electron microscopic image (E) with energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (F) of siderite crystals formed by PV-4 with N2-CO2 as headspace gas at various temperatures. A, 4°C; B, 8°C; C, 18°C; D, 37°C; E, 28°C. Similar crystal globules were formed at all temperatures tested. Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (F) of crystal globules (E) was used to confirm the composition of the siderite crystals.
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4.5 Mb, consistent with the result based on the genome draft released by the Joint Genome Institute. The result suggests that PFGE is a useful and reliable method for determining genome size.
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FIG. 7. PFGE of PV-4 DNA digested with 8-base restriction enzymes. Lane A, AscI; lane B, SwaI; lane C, yeast chromosome marker.
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TABLE 1. Susceptibility of strain PV-4 to nine antibiotics
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Although strain PV-4 was isolated from microbial mats in seawater, it is able to reduce akaganeite and form magnetite in the near absence of NaCl at 8°C using lactate (10 mM) as an electron donor. Strain PV-4 has a preference for slightly alkaline conditions. Strain PV-4 grows well aerobically in the pH range of 5.5 to 10. However, the cells showed a much lower pH tolerance under anaerobic conditions with metals. Metal reduction was observed in the pH range of 7.0 to 8.9, and little growth was observed at a pH below 6.5 or above 9.5. This is in agreement with the fact that microbial transformation of akaganeite to magnetite by Fe(III)-reducing bacteria generally occurs at a pH between 7.0 and 8.9, suggesting that such a process is favored by slightly alkaline conditions (3, 19, 27, 29). As observed in other metal-reducing bacteria, the decreased Eh and pH were recorded from cultures of strain PV-4 (24, 27, 41). This observation may be due to the decomposition of organic matter used as electron donors, which produces organic acids and CO2 (41).
In addition to akaganeite, iron species such as Fe(III)-citrate, iron oxyhydroxide, and HFO can be reduced by strain PV-4. Among them, HFO is the principal form of ferrihydrites, which are dominant iron species in the iron-rich microbial mats at Loihi. Furthermore, HFO has great potential in environmental science because it is an efficient sorbent for inorganic and organic pollutants. Much work on HFO bioreduction has focused on S. putrefaciens strain CN32, a well-studied dissimilatory Fe-reducing model bacterium (6, 8). Similar to strain CN32, PV-4 is able to effectively reduce HFO. This could be significant in iron biogeochemistry, because strain PV-4 has a much wider temperature and pH tolerance.
Strain PV-4 is able to reduce a number of metals other than iron species, Co(III), Cr(VI), Mn(IV), and U(VI) as electron acceptors while using lactate, formate, pyruvate, and hydrogen as electron donors. It is natural to speculate that the bacterial capability of transforming these heavy metals is reflective of its living environments, where hydrothermal fluids are often enriched in heavy metals. However, many other Shewanella strains isolated from different environments can also reduce heavy metals, suggesting that the ability may come mainly from their common ancestor (38).
One of the most striking characteristics of strain PV-4 was that it produced single-domain magnetite crystals using akaganeite at temperatures between 18°C and 37°C. Magnetite formed by closely related mesophilic dissimilatory Fe(III)-reducing bacteria (i.e., Geobacter and most Shewanella spp.) under mesophilic environments was usually poorly crystalline, impure, and mostly in the superparamagnetic size range (diameter, <30 nm), with a few known examples of single-domain grains (Fig. 8) (2, 18, 32). Furthermore, magnetite crystals produced by Shewanella marine isolate W3-6-1 at temperatures ranging from 0 to 30°C were also in this size range (33). Poorly crystallized and superparamagnetic magnetite particles are not stable, arguing against their importance in contributing to the permanent remanent magnetism in sediments (9). The well-crystallized particles in strain PV-4 are more similar to the particles produced by magnetotactic bacteria than those formed by the above-mentioned bacteria (23, 32). This finding is significant, because single-domain magnetite is more likely attributed to magnetization of the marine sediments in subsurface environments (9). Strain PV-4 forms magnetite upon HFO reduction at room temperature as well. However, the magnetite is poorly crystallized, similar to those formed upon akaganeite reduction at low temperatures. The phenomenon cannot be readily explained, and more studies are needed to understand the mechanism of magnetite formation by microbes.
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FIG. 8. Modified diagram (2) showing theoretical domain states for magnetite. SPM, superparamagnetic; SD, single domain; TD, two domains. Solid triangles represent particles formed by magnetotactic bacterial strains BS-1, MV-1, MV-4, MC-1, and MS-1 (1), and the solid square represents particles formed by the metal-reducing bacterium Geobacter metallireducens GS-15 (30). Open circles represent magnetite particles formed by PV-4 in this study. A, 4°C; B, 8°C; C, 14°C; D, 18°C; E, 28°C; F, 37°C.
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While all results presented thus far suggest that strain PV-4 is a good model system for studying metal reduction at low temperatures, whether this organism can be genetically manipulated remains unknown. Uptake of foreign DNA is a prerequisite for all molecular operations. In this study, after determining the antibiotic susceptibility of strain PV-4, we successfully introduced a plasmid into the organism by a natural method (conjugation) but failed to do so by an artificial method (electroporation). This is not surprising, because Shewanella strains can hardly be transformed by electroporation (24). Our following work will focus on developing a site-specific mutagenesis system, which will enable us to pursue functional analysis of this organism.
Y.R. and H.G. contributed equally to this work. ![]()
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