Baltic Sea
- Environmental MicrobiologyGenomic and Seasonal Variations among Aquatic Phages Infecting the Baltic Sea Gammaproteobacterium Rheinheimera sp. Strain BAL341
Phages are important in aquatic ecosystems as they influence their microbial hosts through lysis, gene transfer, transcriptional regulation, and expression of phage metabolic genes. Still, there is limited knowledge of how phages interact with their hosts, especially at fine scales. Here, a Rheinheimera phage-host system constituting highly similar phages infecting one host strain is presented. This relatively limited diversity...
- Microbial EcologyIndividual Physiological Adaptations Enable Selected Bacterial Taxa To Prevail during Long-Term Incubations
In microbial ecology, enclosure studies are often used to investigate the effect of single environmental factors on complex bacterial communities. However, in addition to the manipulation, unintended effects (“bottle effect”) may occur due to the enclosure itself. In this study, we analyzed the bacterial communities that originated from three different salinities of the Baltic Sea, comparing their compositions and physiological...
- Microbial EcologyMicrobial Organic Matter Degradation Potential in Baltic Sea Sediments Is Influenced by Depositional Conditions and In Situ Geochemistry
Sediments sequester organic matter over geologic time scales and impact global climate regulation. Microbial communities in marine sediments drive organic matter degradation, but the factors controlling their assemblages and activities, which in turn impact their role in organic matter degradation, are not well understood. Hence, determining the role of microbial communities in carbon cycling in various sediment types is necessary for...
- Microbial EcologyGenomic Characterization of Cyanophage vB_AphaS-CL131 Infecting Filamentous Diazotrophic Cyanobacterium Aphanizomenon flos-aquae Reveals Novel Insights into Virus-Bacterium Interactions
The genomic characterization of novel cyanophage vB_AphaS-CL131 and the analysis of its genomic features in the context of other viruses, metagenomic data, and host CRISPR-Cas systems contribute toward a better understanding of aquatic viral diversity and distribution in general and of brackish-water cyanophages infecting filamentous diazotrophic cyanobacteria in the Baltic Sea in particular. The results of this study revealed...
- Environmental MicrobiologyGenomes of Novel Microbial Lineages Assembled from the Sub-Ice Waters of Lake Baikal