Environmental

Microbiology
Talaro
Chapter 26

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• Environmental Microbiology
– Study of microbes in their natural habitats
– Microbial Diversity – study of the different types
of microbes in an environment
• Microbial Ecology
– Studies the interactions between microbes & their
environments
– Involving biotic & abiotic components
– Distribution
– Abundance – numbers of bacteria

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 Microbes comprise approximately half
of all the biomass on Earth
Prokaryotes exist in all of the habitats on Earth
Extreme cold
Extreme heat Prokaryotes exits in
Low O2 environments that are too
Extreme pressure – “barophiles” extreme or inhospitable for
now called piezophiles
High salt (low aw) eukaryotic cells –
Extremophiles!!
Limits of life on Earth are defined by the presence of prokaryotes
which tells us what to look for when looking for life on
extraterrestrial bodies

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The primary role of microorganisms is to
serve as catalysts of biogeochemical cycles

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Microbial catalysts interact on a much smaller
spatial scale, but affect the biosphere over a
long period of time
Nanometers to micrometers
Bacteria on the tip of a plant root
Bacteria living in specialized
organs of invertebrates

Geologic Time
Production of O2
Millions to billions of years

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Microorganism have a greater metabolic
versatility than do macroorganisms

Photoautotrophs
Chemoautrophs
Photoheterotroph
Chemoheterotrophs

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 Prokaryotes do not Exist in Isolation
Plant and animals are dependent upon the actions of
prokaryotes
Archaea and Bacteria participate in mutualistic
relationships that benefit both organisms

Only a small number of bacteria are pathogenic!

And there are bacteria that are pathogens

of animals and plants
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 Examples of Mutualism
• Sheep and cattle (ruminants) live off grass

• Lack the digestive enzymes to break down cellulose

• Bacteria in intestinal tract break down cellulose

• Products of cellulose degradation are converted to carbon
sources that the ruminants can use
• CH4 is also produced in high amounts (belching!)

• Sugars absorbed by animal and used for energy

• Plants unable to fix atmospheric N2

• Symbiotic bacteria infect roots

• Plant requires nitrogen for proteins 8

Biofilms Antarctica glaciers
• Complex aggregation Hot springs
– Bacteria, archaea, protozoa, algae
– Microbial Mat
• Free floating organism
• Attached organism
– Highly structured
• Extracellular polysaccharide
– Protective & adhesive matrix
• Protection from the environment Antarctic Sun February 12, 2006

• Protection from protozoans

• Protection from antibiotics & chemicals

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• Grows by cell division & recruitment
• Industrial biofilms
– Pipe corrosion
– Ship corrosion
• Infections
– Dental plaque
– Contact lenses
– Heart valves
– Artificial hip joints

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• Physiologically Integrated
– Each group performs a specialized metabolic
function
• Lateral gene transfer
– Conjugation between different species
– Transduction between different species
• Cell to cell communication
– Quorum sensing

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1. Initial attachment 4. Maturation of Biofilm Architecture
2. Production of EPS 5. Dispersion
3. Early Biofilm Architecture
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 Microbial mat
Cyanobacteria & purple bacteria
Lake Cadagno, Switzerland
White area is precipitated sulfur
www.microbes.org/labs.asp
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 Cyanobacterial mat in run-off from
a hot springs at Yellowstone National Park

www.mit.edu/people/janelle/homepage.html

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Winogradsky Column Nutrient Cycling
• A glass column
that simulates the
complex
interactions of
microbial biofilms
in an aqueous
environment
– Upper aerobic
zone
– Microaerophilic
zone
– Lower anaerobic
zone

Environmental Technology Consortium at Clark

Atlanta University and Northern Arizona University 15
• Algae, cyanobacteria, aerobic heterotrophs
– CO2 + H2O → CH2O + O2
• Oxygenic photosynthesis More on
• H2O is a source of electrons anoxygenic and
oxygenic
– CH2O + O2 → CO2 + H2O photosynthesis
• Aerobic respiration is few moments
• H2S oxidizers
– CO2 + H2S → CH2O + S + H2O
• Anoxygenic photosynthesis
• H2S is a source of electrons
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• Purple nonsulfur photoheterotrophs
– May exist as photoheterotrophs, photoautotrophs or
chemoheterotrophs
– Freely alternate between these metabolic modes
depending on environmental conditions
• Degree of anaerobiosis
• Availability and types of carbon sources
– CO2 for autotrophic growth
– Organic compounds for heterotrophic growth
• Availability of light for phototrophic growth
• The “non-sulfur” label was used since it was
originally thought that these bacteria could not use
H2S as an electron donor
• Can use H2S in low concentrations
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• Purple non-sulfur bacteria
– CH2O + O2 → CO2 + H2O (Chemoheterotrophs)
– CH2O + O2 → CO2 + H2O (Photoheterotrophs)
– CO2 + H2O → CH2O + O2 (Photoautotrophs)
• Purple & Green sulfur bacteria
– Anoxygenic photosynthesis
– H2, H2S or So → SO42-

• Sulfate reducers
– SO42- → S2- compound (H2S or FeS)

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19
Quorum Sensing
• Cell-cell communication in bacteria
• Coordinate behavior/activities between bacterial cells of the
same species
• Autoinducers trigger a change when cells are in high
concentration
– Specific receptor for the inducer
– Extracellular concentration of autoinducer increases with
population
– Threshold is reached
– The population responds with an alteration in gene expression
• Bioluminescence
• Secretion of virulence factors
• Biofilm formation
• Sporulation
• Competence
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Energy & Nutrient Flow It is likely that
most of the
Earth's
atmospheric
oxygen was
produced by
bacterial cells.
Plant cell
chloroplast and
oxygenic
photosynthesis
are originated
in prokaryotes.
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Photosynthesis developed  3 bya

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Anoxygenic Photosynthesis
– Anaerobic bacterial photosynthesis that does not produce O2
– CO2 + H2S → (CH2O)n + S + H2O
• H2, H2S or So or organic compounds serves as a source of
electrons
– Need electrons to make fix C and make ATP
– Purple and green photosynthetic sulfur bacteria
• Aquatic & anaerobic
• Pigments that absorb different l
• Bacteriochlorophyll (800 - 1000 nm [far red])
• Carotenoids (400 - 550 nm)
– Phycobilins are not present
• Only 1 photosystem
– Rhodobacter
• Oxidize succinate or butyrate during CO2 fixation
• Hypothesized to be have become an endosymbiont of
eucaryotes
• Mitochondrion 16S rRNA sequences 23
 Cyanobacteria & purple bacteria
Lake Cadagno, Switzerland

www.microbes.org/labs.asp
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• Start here next time

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Cyanobacteria
Tremendous ecological importance in
the C, O and N cycles

Evolutionary relationship to plants

Cyanobacteria have chlorophyll a,

carotenoids and phycobilins

Same chlorophyll a in plants and algae

Chlorophyll a absorbs light at 450 nm
& 650 - 750 nm

Pycobilins absorb at 550 and 650 nm

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Some cyanobacteria fix
nitrogen in specialized cells
HETEROCYSTS.

Provide anaerobic environment

required for nitrogenase.

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Cyanobacteria have membranes that resemble
photosynthetic thylakoids in plant chloroplasts.

Hypothesized that cyanobacteria were the

progenitors of eucaryotic chloroplasts via
endosymbiosis.

Cyanobacteria are very similar to the

chloroplasts of red algae (Rhodophyta).

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Several species of cyanobacteria are
symbionts of liverworts, ferns,
cycads, flagellated protozoa, and
algae.

The photosynthetic partners of

lichens are commonly cyanobacteria.
www.botany.wisc.edu/.../AnabaenaAzolla2.jpg
There is also an example of a
cyanobacterium as endosymbionts of
plant cells.

A cyanobacterial endophyte
(Anabaena spp.) fixes nitrogen that
becomes available to the water fern,
Azolla.
www.csupomona.edu 29
Several thousand cyanobacteria species.

Many are symbionts.

 200 species are free-living, nonsymbiotic

procaryotes.

Cyanobacteria often are isolated from extreme

environments.
Hot springs of the Yellowstone National
Park Antarctica lakes
www.resa.net/nasa/antarctica.htm

Copious mats 2 to 4 cm thick in water

beneath more than 5 m of permanent ice.

Cyanobacteria are not found in acidic waters where

algae (euckaryotic) predominate.
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 Green alga
Figure 17. The distribution of
photosynthetic pigments among
photosynthetic microorganisms.

Red alga

cyanobacterium

Green bacterium

Purple bacterium

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 Anoxygenic bacterial photosynthesis
Photosystem I
Cyclic Photophosphorylation
iron sulfur protein Cyanobacteria, algae and plants, also have Photosystem II

ATP is generated
during
photophosphorylation

bacterial chlorophyll cyclic photophosphorylation

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 Anoxygenic bacterial photosynthesis
Photosystem I

Electrons from
H2S are passed to
ferredoxin
NADP is reduced

Autotrophic CO2 fixation

CO2 → (CH2O)n

CO2 + H2S → (CH2O)n + S + H2O

Oxidation of H2S is linked to PS1

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Anoxygenic photosynthesis
Limitations on the amount of C that can be fixed

Need more electrons to fix more C

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Electrons lost Oxygenic Photosynthesis
here must be Plants, algae and cyanobacteria
replenished

ATP is generate by PS2 ensures a

noncyclic constant supply of
CO2 → (CH2O)n
Calvin Cycle photophosphorylation electrons
Electrons
from PS1
reduce
ferredoxin
Ferredoxin
H2O is source
passes the of electrons
electrons
to NADP
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 Table 6. Differences between plant and bacterial photosynthesis
Plant Photosynthesis Bacterial Photosynthesis
plants, algae,
Organisms purple and green bacteria
cyanobacteria
chlorophyll a bacteriochlorophyll
Type of chlorophyll
absorbs 650-750 nm absorbs 800-1000 nm
Photosystem I
present present
(cyclic photophosphorylation)

Photosystem II
present absent
(noncyclic photophosphorylation)

Produces O2 yes no
H2S, other sulfur compounds
Photosynthetic electron donor H2O or
certain organic compounds

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