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Quick recap…..microbial metabolism

Metabolism is the sum total of all the chemical reactions within a living organism.

LIGHTen up people: the world of phototrophy Anabolism:

The processes by which
energy and raw materials
are used to build
Brendan Burns MICR2011 macromolecules and
cellular structures
School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences
(biosynthesis)

Catabolism:
The processes by which
a living organism obtains
its energy and raw
materials from nutrients

These lectures focus on the catabolism side….what do I need to eat/do to get my ATP J

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Quick recap……. Chemotrophs Classification of energy-capturing and

carbon metabolism
Oxidation of chemical compounds to obtain energy.
All microbes are either
These compounds can be organic (chemoorganotrophs)
or inorganic (chemolithotrophs)

Inorganic CO2 = C-source Organic compounds = C-source

Autotrophs Heterotrophs
Make own organic molecules Need ready-made organic
by reducing CO2 Molecules for cell compounds

Energy from light Energy from light

Photoautotrophs Photoheterotrophs

Energy from Energy from

inorganic compounds organic compounds
Chemolithotrophs Chemoorganotrophs

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Energy source is…

Chemicals = Chemotrophy

Light……and life
or

Light = Phototrophy

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Importance of the Sun….

The ‘Goldilocks’ zone…
Ø Warms us! And oceans, atmosphere….

Ø Stirs the atmosphere, creates weather patterns

Ø Vitamin D

Ø Makes us happy! (increases serotonin) J

Ø Boosts fertility….. (lowers melatonin)

Ø Key in many religions

Ø Provides energy at the base of the food chain….

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Lecture outline

1. Phototrophy
2. Oxygenic photosynthesis
3. Anoxygenic photosynthesis
4. Photoheterotophy
5. A model phototroph….cyanobacteria
6. Winogradsky column…and stromatolites

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Phototrophy
Lecture outline

1. Phototrophy
2. Oxygenic photosynthesis
3. Anoxygenic photosynthesis
4. Photoheterotophy
5. A model phototroph….cyanobacteria
6. Winogradsky column…and stromatolites

Energy from light

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Pigment
Pigment diversity
diversity allowsallows
for the for the capture
capture of
of different
different wavelengths
wavelengths of light of light

Photosynthetic
pigments

versus

Purple phototrophic bacteria

Pigment diversity enables energy capture from different wavelengths

This allows bacteria to live in diverse habitats

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Energy can be harvested from light via redox Phototrophy

reactions generating chemical energy (phototrophy)

Photon
energy
e-
+ Oxygenic
e-
Anoxygenic
+ Electron acceptor Energy is
chemically stored
Electron donor (ATP)
Photosynthesis uses light energy to reduce
high potential electron acceptor

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Lecture outline

1. Phototrophy
2. Oxygenic photosynthesis
3. Anoxygenic photosynthesis
4. Photoheterotophy
5. A model phototroph….cyanobacteria
6. Winogradsky column…and stromatolites

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Photoautotrophy
energetically
"downhill" flow of
CO2 as a carbon source
electrons leads to
synthesis of ATP
and NADPH
The most common pathway
used by autotrophic bacteria to
Once an electron is fix (reduce) carbon.
lost, each
photosystem is
replenished by
electrons from a
different source. The
PSII reaction center
gets electrons from
water, while the PSI
reaction center is
replenished by
electrons that flow
down from PSII
The Calvin Cycle Cyanobacteria
Alternatively
Reverse TCA cycle and Hydroxypropionate pathway

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Lecture outline

1. Phototrophy
2. Oxygenic photosynthesis
3. Anoxygenic photosynthesis Not H2O!
4. Photoheterotophy
5. A model phototroph….cyanobacteria
6. Winogradsky column…and stromatolites

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Photosynthesis

Ø Biological process that converts solar energy to biomass, bio-products, and biofuel

Ø Only major natural solar energy storage mechanism on Earth

Ø Phototrophic bacteria use light as the energy source to produce ATP and reductants

Ø Energy and reducing equivalents generated from light-induced electron transport

drive diverse carbon anabolic pathways for producing cellular material

Ø Additionally, numerous photosynthetic bacteria play essential roles in global carbon,

nitrogen, and sulfur cycles

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Oxygenic photosynthesis Oxygenic photosynthesis

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Photoheterotrophy
Lecture outline
Ø Use light for energy but CANNOT use CO2 as sole carbon source

Ø Examples include purple sulfur bacteria, Heliobacteria, some archaea

1. Phototrophy
Ø Reaction centres are either bacteriochlorophyll-based (bacteria) or rhodopsin (primarily
2. Oxygenic photosynthesis archaea)
3. Anoxygenic photosynthesis
Ø Bacteriochlorophylls wider range of wavelengths
4. Photoheterotophy
5. A model phototroph….cyanobacteria Ø Rhodopsins function as light-driven proton pumps
6. Winogradsky column…and stromatolites
Ø Carbon requirements come from fatty acids, alcohols, carbohydrates

Often found in extreme environs

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Lecture outline Cyanobacteria

1. Phototrophy
2. Oxygenic photosynthesis
3. Anoxygenic photosynthesis
4. Photoheterotophy
5. A model phototroph….cyanobacteria
6. Winogradsky column…and stromatolites
4 photosynthetic bacteria
4 unicellular / colonial
4 free-living / symbionts

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Cyanobacteria characteristics A new chlorophyll for cyanobacteria: give

me an F….
- First organisms to have 2 photosystems: PSI and PSII

- Pigments – chl a, d (and f!), phycobiliproteins

- phycoerythrin
- phycocyanin * BlueGreen Color

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Historical perspective
• ‘Blue green algae’
• Photosynthetic bacteria Bitter springs chert,
central Australia
• One of oldest known (850 million years)
organisms
– Fossils date back to 3.5
billion years
– Oldest rocks: 3.8 billion
years old
any kind of habitat – Stromatolites
– Suggests early on life
already relatively advanced

colonial chroococcalean form

Stromatolites at Shark Bay, Australia Dry valleys of Antarctica

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Origin and Evolution of Life on Earth Cyanobacteria

• Important role in evolution

of life on Earth
– Oxygenic atmosphere
– Currently: 70% of world’s
ocean primary production
from cyanos
stroms
– Global carbon cycles
1st eukarya
• Precursors of chloroplasts
in plants
– ‘Endosymbiosis’ theory

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Cyanobacteria – biotech applications Cyanobacterial blooms

• Nutrient supplement https://jolly.fimr.fi/boing/impact.nsf

– Spirulina
• Ethanol or hydrogen
production
– Atmospheric CO2 +
sunlight into ethanol or
hydrogen

• Bioactive compounds
– Toxins
– Antibiotics
– Anticancer compounds

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Winogradsky column
Lecture outline A great example of how the metabolic processes of
microorganisms result in complex microbial successions
and drive ecosystem function
1. Phototrophy
2. Oxygenic photosynthesis
3. Anoxygenic photosynthesis
4. Photoheterotophy
5. Cyanobacteria, toxin, production, and natural products
6. Winogradsky column…and stromatolites
More on these guys
in one of your
labs…

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The Winogradsky column Nature’s Winogradsky columns….stromatolites

The Winogradsky column is a miniature, self- Ø One ecosystem acts as Winogradsky column (and light is key) – stromatolites
contained ecosystem.

As the column progresses gradients begin to form Ø Stratified microbial communities that develop at interfaces of water and solid surface
(form laminated mutlilayers)
(light, temperature, nutrient, O 2 and H2 S
concentration gradients).These gradients result in
a complex interaction of microbes with their Ø Cause steep environmental microgradients of various nutrients
environment and with one another resulting in a
series of community successions and, ultimately,
stratification of microbial populations. Ø Boundaries well defined based on diffusion rates; diffusion of small molecules very
fast
ØPhotolithotrophic autotrophs
Ø Rapid internal cycling of C, N, S, and P: support high rates of metabolism
ØPhotoorganotrophic heterotrophs

ØChemolithotrophic autotrophs

ØChemoorganotrophic heterotrophs

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Stromatolites

Microbial mat

Microbial mat

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Stromatolites
Ø Biosedimentary structures produced by trapping/precipitation activity of
microorganisms

Ø Present on Earth > 3.7 billion years….

Ø Linked to oxygenation of early atmosphere

Microfossils (~1 bya)
Ø Fossil stromatolites are our earliest record of life on Earth

Fossil stromatolite (~3 bya)

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Stromatolites at Shark Bay, Western

Australia
But other
livestock/people is
ok…

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Shark Bay stromatolites

• Best examples on earth of living stromatolites

• Surrounding seawater twice as saline as normal seawater

• By analogy ancient stromatolites thought to have formed in

hypersaline waters

• Present is key to the past…..

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Stromatolites – complex microbial communities

My stromatolite research

Microbial metabolisms and interactions (with each

other and their physical environment) determine
microbial stromatolite function, morphology, and
persistence through space and time

Focus on drivers of ecosystem function – diversity,

adaptation, elemental cycling, novel pathways,
communication

Natural ‘Winogradsky column’

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a
Microbial distribution in Shark Bay stromatolites with depth Scattering of light through a stromatolite

Fisher A, Wangpraseurt D,
Larkum A, Johnson M, Kühl
M, Wong HL, Chen M, Burns
Can correlate with light regime, pigments, to delineate phototrophic lifestyles BP (2019). Pool, Australia.
FEMS Microbial Ecol 95.

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Photon trapping at surface in stromatolites Pigment composition

665 nm Chlorophyll a
100
S8 17.8 minutes
120
665,
80 77.137
80 60
AU
AU

40 40
20
0 0
370420470520570620670720770 370420470520570620670720770
Wavelength (nm) Wavelength (nm)
Chen &
Blankenship, 2011

mAU (x 1000) Smooth mat pigments

90 Chlorophyll a
Chlorophyll a
75
60
45
30
15
0
Increases rates of photosynthesis, productivity at the surface – benefits whole system 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34
mins

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Pigment composition Pigment composition

770 nm 800
S8 14.1 minutes
350
S8 13.0 minutes 700nm 60
Chl f and d in meOH
120
S8 14.8 minutes
771, 772,
626.84 283.61 683,
280 50 100 79.13
600
40 80
AU

210

AU
AU

400 30 60

AU
140
20 40
200 70 10 20
0 0 0 0
370420470520570620670720770 370420470520570620670720770 370 420 470 520 570 620 670 720 770 370420470520570620670720770
Wavelength (nm) Wavelength (nm) Wavelength (nm) Wavelength (nm)
Chen & Blankenship, 2011

mAU (x 1000) Smooth mat pigments mAU (x 1000) Smooth mat pigments
90 90
Bacteriochlorophyll a
75 75
60 60
45 45
30 30
??
15 15
0 0
?
4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34
mins 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34
mins

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What is going on in natural ‘Winogradsky columns’

(stromatolites)….

Carotenoids are orange,

Chlorophylls are green Interactions are
Opportunistic
niches
key…

Phototrophy is alive
Some overlap
(movement?)
between layers

in mats by the sea….. Waste product of

one organism is
the substrate for Microorganisms
another exploit every
energetic opportunity
Amy Fisher

Stromatolites are the

original social network J

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Summary
Final thoughts on light….

Metabolic diversity of microbes lies in the fact that they can utilise many
alternate electrons acceptors and donors – you name it, they will eat it J

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Nothing to do T1 2021….?

MICR3071
ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY

Really hope to see some of you in 3rd year

MICR3071 next year!!

Microbial ecology, biogeochemical cycling,

microbial diversity, adaptation, global
change…all the really cool stuff!!
J

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