Publications

bacteria and archaea community structure in the rumen microbiome of goats (capra hircus) from the semiarid region of brazil.	most studies present in the literature about the rumen microbiome have focused on cattle and sheep. this is the first report of the characterization of the bacterial and archaeal communities present in the liquid and solid-associated fractions of the rumen from free ranging moxotó breed goats using 16s rrna gene libraries. pcr was used to amplify the 16s rrna gene with bacterial and archaeal universal primers and sequences from each library constructed were obtained. sequences of bacteria from t ...	2011	21575735
terrestrial sources homogenize bacterial water quality during rainfall in two urbanized watersheds in santa barbara, ca.	microbiological contamination from runoff is a human health concern in urbanized coastal environments, but the contamination sources are often unknown. this study quantified fecal indicator bacteria and compared the distributions of human-specific genetic markers and bacterial community composition during dry and wet weather in urban creeks draining two neighboring watersheds in santa barbara, ca. in a prior study conducted during exclusively dry weather, the creeks were contaminated with human ...	2011	21617896
impact of high-concentrate feeding and low ruminal ph on methanogens and protozoa in the rumen of dairy cows.	non-lactating dairy cattle were transitioned to a high-concentrate diet to investigate the effect of ruminal ph suppression, commonly found in dairy cattle, on the density, diversity, and community structure of rumen methanogens, as well as the density of rumen protozoa. four ruminally cannulated cows were fed a hay diet and transitioned to a 65% grain and 35% hay diet. the cattle were maintained on an high-concentrate diet for 3 weeks before the transition back to an hay diet, which was fed for ...	2011	21625972
sewage exfiltration as a source of storm drain contamination during dry weather in urban watersheds.	separating storm drains and sanitary sewers is expected to control sewage pollution, for example from combined sewer overflows, and to reduce excessive stormwater flow to wastewater treatment plants. however, sewage contamination has been found in municipal separate storm drain systems in urban areas during dry weather flow. to determine if transmission of sewage is occurring from leaking sanitary sewers directly to leaking separated storm drains, field experiments were performed in three waters ...	2011	21786744
a 'universal' type ii chaperonin pcr detection system for the investigation of archaea in complex microbial communities.	bacteria and archaea are evolutionarily and biochemically distinct domains found together in many environments. robust 'universal' pcr primer sets targeting both the bacterial 16s rrna gene and the type i chaperonin gene have been established. however, 'universal' pcr primers for archaea are currently limited to the 16s rrna gene. we investigated the type ii chaperonin (known as the thermosome, tf55, cct or tcp-1) as a potential universal target (ut) for archaea. reproducible amplification of th ...	2011	21776031
abundance and diversity of mucosa-associated hydrogenotrophic microbes in the healthy human colon.	hydrogenotrophic microbiota have a significant impact on colonic health; however, little is known about their diversity and ecology in situ. here, molecular-based methods and multivariate analyses were used to examine the abundance and diversity of mucosa-associated hydrogenotrophic microbes in 90 biopsies collected from right colon, left colon and rectum of 25 healthy subjects. functional genes of all three hydrogenotrophic groups were detected in at least one colonic region of all subjects. me ...	2011	21753800
differences in the rumen methanogen populations of lactating jersey and holstein dairy cows under the same diet regimen.	in the dairy cattle industry, holstein and jersey are the breeds most commonly used for production. they differ in performance by various traits, such as body size, milk production, and milk composition. with increased concerns about the impact of agriculture on climate change, potential differences in other traits, such as methane emission, also need to be characterized further. since methane is produced in the rumen by methanogenic archaea, we investigated whether the population structure of m ...	2011	21705541
the antimicrobial resistance pattern of cultured human methanogens reflects the unique phylogenetic position of archaea.	objectives methanogenic archaea are constant members of the human oral and digestive microbiota retrieved, in particular, from periodontitis lesions. the objective of the study was to determine their susceptibility to antimicrobials. methods using the macrodilution method in hungate tubes with optical microscope observation combined with monitoring methane production, we determined the antibiotic resistance characteristics of eight methanogenic archaea. results methanobrevibacter smithii strains ...	2011	21680581
isolation of natural cultures of anaerobic fungi and indigenously associated methanogens from herbivores and their bioconversion of lignocellulosic materials to methane.	this study aimed to obtain natural cultures of anaerobic fungi and their indigenously associated methanogens from herbivores and investigate their ability to degrade lignocelluloses to methane. eight natural cultures were obtained by hungate roll tube technique. the fungi were identified as belonging to piromyces, anaeromyces and neocallimastix respectively by microscopy, and the methanogens as methanobrevibacter spp. by 16s rrna gene sequencing. in vitro studies with rice straw showed that thes ...	2011	21719276
obesity-associated gut microbiota is enriched in lactobacillus reuteri and depleted in bifidobacterium animalis and methanobrevibacter smithii.	background:obesity is associated with increased health risk and has been associated with alterations in bacterial gut microbiota, with mainly a reduction in bacteroidetes, but few data exist at the genus and species level. it has been reported that the lactobacillus and bifidobacterium genus representatives may have a critical role in weight regulation as an anti-obesity effect in experimental models and humans, or as a growth-promoter effect in agriculture depending on the strains.objectives an ...	2011	21829158
Relationship between rumen methanogens and methane production in dairy cows fed diets supplemented with a feed enzyme additive.	To investigate the relationship between ruminal methanogen community and host enteric methane (CH(4) ) production in lactating dairy cows fed diets supplemented with an exogenous fibrolytic enzyme additive.	2011	21848695
degradation of lignified secondary cell walls of lucerne (medicago sativa l.) by rumen fungi growing in methanogenic co-culture.	to compare the abilities of the monocentric rumen fungi neocallimastix frontalis, piromyces communis and caecomyces communis, growing in coculture with methanobrevibacter smithii, to colonize and degrade lignified secondary cell walls of lucerne (alfalfa) hay.	2011	21848807
Immunogenic properties of archaeal species found in bioaerosols.	The etiology of bioaerosol-related pulmonary diseases remains poorly understood. Recently, archaea emerged as prominent airborne components of agricultural environments, but the consequences of airway exposure to archaea remain unknown. Since subcomponents of archaea can be immunogenic, we used a murine model to study the pulmonary immune responses to two archaeal species found in agricultural facilities: Methanobrevibacter smithii (MBS) and Methanosphaera stadtmanae (MSS). Mice were administere ...	2011	21858070
Evaluation of the nifH Gene Marker of Methanobrevibacter smithii for the Detection of Sewage Pollution in Environmental Waters in Southeast Queensland, Australia.	This study aimed at evaluating the host-specificity and -sensitivity of the nifH gene marker of Methanobrevibacter smithii by screening 272 fecal and wastewater samples from 11 animal species including humans in Southeast Queensland (SEQ), Australia. In addition, environmental water samples (n=21) were collected during the dry and wet weather conditions and tested for the presence of the nifH marker along with other sewage-associated markers, namely, enterococci surface protein (esp) found in En ...	2011	22070524
Molecular diversity of methanogens in fecal samples from Bactrian camels (Camelusbactrianus) at two zoos.	Animals are dependent on mutualistic microbial communities that reside in their gastrointestinal track for essential physiological functions such as nutrition and pathogen resistance. The composition of microbial communities in an animal is influenced by various factors, including species, diet and geographical location. In this preliminary study, the population structure of fecal methanogens in Bactrian camels (Camelus bactrianus) from two zoos was studied using separate 16S rRNA gene libraries ...	2011	21917280
culture-based indicators of fecal contamination and molecular microbial indicators rarely correlate with campylobacter spp. in recreational waters.	campylobacter spp. are the leading cause of gastroenteritis worldwide. most human infections result from contaminated food; however, infections are also caused by recreational waterway contamination. campylobacter culture is technically challenging and enumeration by culture-based methods is onerous. thus, we employed qpcr to quantify campylobacter spp. in fresh- and marine-water samples, raw sewage and animal feces. multiplex pcr determined whether campylobacter jejuni or c. coli, most commonly ...	2011	22048429
methanogenic archaea are globally ubiquitous in aerated soils and become active under wet anoxic conditions.	the prototypical representatives of the euryarchaeota-the methanogens-are oxygen sensitive and are thought to occur only in highly reduced, anoxic environments. however, we found methanogens of the genera methanosarcina and methanocella to be present in many types of upland soils (including dryland soils) sampled globally. these methanogens could be readily activated by incubating the soils as slurry under anoxic conditions, as seen by rapid methane production within a few weeks, without any add ...	2011	22071343
toxicity of methylated bismuth compounds produced by intestinal microorganisms to bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, a member of the physiological intestinal microbiota.	methanoarchaea have an outstanding capability to methylate numerous metal(loid)s therefore producing toxic and highly mobile derivatives. here, we report that the production of methylated bismuth species by the methanoarchaeum methanobrevibacter smithii, a common member of the human intestine, impairs the growth of members of the beneficial intestinal microbiota at low concentrations. the bacterium bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, which is of great importance for the welfare of the host due to its ...	2011	21966291
methyl coenzyme m reductase (mcra) gene based phylogenetic analysis of methanogens population in murrah buffaloes (bubalus bubalis).	the aim of the present study was to decipher the diversity of methanogens in rumen of murrah buffaloes so that effective strategies can be made in order to mitigate methane emission from these methanogens. in the present study diversity of rumen methanogens in murrah buffaloes (bubalus bubalis) from north india was evaluated by using mcr-a gene library obtained from the pooled pcr product from four animals and by using mega4 software. a total of 104 clones were examined, revealing 26 different m ...	2011	21887637
diversity and abundance of the rumen and fecal methanogens in altay sheep native to xinjiang and the influence of diversity on methane emissions.	this study aims to investigate the influence of diet roughage proportion on the methanogenic communities from the rumen and fecal samples in altay local sheep native to xinjiang and better understand the association of methanogenic diversity or abundance with methane emissions of the ruminants. in this study, the high roughage diet was found to cause more methane emissions for either maintenance or ad-lib group, but the total methanogenic abundance was not influenced by roughage proportion and s ...	2011	22038025
a1ao-atp synthase of methanobrevibacter ruminantium couples sodium ions for atp synthesis under physiological conditions.	an unresolved question in the bioenergetics of methanogenic archaea is how the generation of proton-motive and sodium-motive forces during methane production is used to synthesize atp by the membrane-bound a(1)a(o)-atp synthase, with both proton- and sodium-coupled enzymes being reported in methanogens. to address this question, we investigated the biochemical characteristics of the a(1)a(o)-atp synthase (mbbra(1)a(o)) of methanobrevibacter ruminantium m1, a predominant methanogen in the rumen. ...	2011	21953465
a novel fingerprint method to assess the diversity of methanogens in microbial systems.	understanding the ecology of methanogens in natural and engineered environments is a prerequisite to predicting or managing methane emissions. in this study, a novel high-throughput fingerprint method was developed for determining methanogen diversity and relative abundance within environmental samples. the method described here, designated amplicon length heterogeneity pcr of the mcra gene (lh-mcra), is based on the natural length variation in the mcra gene. the mcra gene encodes the alpha-subu ...	2011	22093027
contribution of lateral gene transfer to the gene repertoire of a gut-adapted methanogen.	methanobrevibacter smithii is the most abundant archaeon in the human colon. as most of its neighbors are bacterial species, it is expected that lateral gene acquisition from bacteria might have contributed to the evolution and adaptation of this archaeon. we performed a tree-based genome-wide survey of putative lateral gene transfer products in m. smithii, using a phylogenetic pipeline. over 15% of the coding genes of m. smithii are inferred to be bacterial in origin, based on this analysis. la ...	2012	22056789
detection of methanogenic archaea in the pitchers of the northern pitcher plant ( sarracenia purpurea ).	carnivorous plants of the genus sarracenia rely on microorganisms in their pitchers to decompose drowned insects. the environment inside pitchers is considered to be aerobic; however, there might be zones, such as at the bottom of the pitcher, where anaerobic conditions develop. samples of the sediment at the bottom of sarracenia purpurea pitchers were analyzed for the presence of archaea, using pcr and sequencing of the 16s rrna gene. archaeal dna was detected in 20% of sampled pitchers. al ...	2012	22263906
Diversity analysis of methanogens in rumen of Bubalus bubalis by 16S riboprinting and sequence analysis.	The molecular diversity of rumen methanogens was investigated by 16S rDNA gene library prepared from the rumen contents obtained from Murrah buffaloes in India. Genomic DNA was isolated from adult male fistulated buffaloes and PCR conditions were set up using specific primers. Amplified product was cloned into a suitable vector, and the positive clones were selected assuming based on blue-white screening and sequenced. Positive clones were reamplified and the resulting PCR products were further ...	2012	22155312