Biosciences Area

  • About Biosciences
    • Leadership
    • Area Operations Centers
    • Strategic Plan and Progress Report
    • Strategic Programs Development Group
    • Contact Information
  • Our Science
    • Area Programs
    • Strategic Initiatives
    • Biological Systems and Engineering
    • Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology
    • Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging
    • DOE Joint Genome Institute
  • Media and Events
    • News
    • Announcements
    • Behind the Breakthroughs
    • Events Calendar
    • Seminar Series
  • Staff Resources
    • Commonly Used Acronyms
    • Communications
    • Hiring and Recruitment
    • Hybrid & Telework Resources
    • IDEA
    • Intellectual Property, Industry Engagement, and Entrepreneurship
    • LDRD Information
    • Logos and Templates
    • Mentoring Program
  • Search

Biosciences Researchers Part of Genomic Analysis of Giant Bacteria Found in Guadeloupe Mangroves

June 23, 2022

Jean-Marie Volland at Donner lab. (Massie S. Ballon)
Jean-Marie Volland at Donner lab. (Massie S. Ballon)

In Science, a team led by Jean-Marie Volland, a scientist with joint appointments at the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and the Laboratory for Research in Complex Systems, and Silvina Gonzalez-Rizzo and Olivier Gros of the Université des Antilles, described the morphological and genomic features of a giant filamentous bacterium, along with its life cycle.

Volland got involved with the giant Thiomargarita bacteria when he returned to the Gros lab as a postdoctoral fellow. When he applied to the discovery-based position at the LRC that would see him working at the JGI, Gros allowed him to continue research on the project. Volland began studying Ca. T. magnifica in Tanja Woyke’s Single Cells Group to better understand what this sulfur-oxidizing, carbon fixing bacterium was doing in the mangroves. “We started this project under the JGI’s strategic thrust of inter-organismal interactions, because large sulfur bacteria have been shown to be hot spots for symbionts,” said Woyke, who also heads the JGI’s Microbial Program and is one of the article’s senior authors. “Yet the project took us into a very different direction.”

Single filament of Ca. Thiomargarita magnifica (Jean-Marie Volland)
Single filament of Ca. Thiomargarita magnifica (Jean-Marie Volland)

The JGI team then used single cell genomics to analyze five of the bacterial cells on the molecular level. Pair–end reads were imported into the KBase platform to assemble reads using SPAdes. Using imaging facilities available at Berkeley Lab, such as confocal laser scanning microscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), allowed Volland to visualize the filaments and the cell membranes in more details. These techniques allowed him to observe novel, membrane-bound compartments that contain DNA clusters. He dubbed these organelles “pepins,” after the small seeds in fruits.

Other JGI and Biosciences authors on the paper are Tomáš Tyml, Natalia Ivanova, Frederik Schulz, Danielle Goudeau, Nathalie H. Elisabeth, Nandita Nath, Daniel Udwary, Rex R. Malmstrom,  Karen M. Davies, and Nigel J. Mouncey.

Learn more on the JGI website.

Was this page useful?

Send
like not like

About Biosciences

  • Leadership
  • Area Operations Centers
  • Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accountability (IDEA)
  • Contact

Divisions & User Facility

  • Biological Systems and Engineering
  • Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology
  • Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging
  • DOE Joint Genome Institute

Resources

  • A-Z Index
  • Phonebook
  • Logos
  • Acronyms
  • Integrated Safety Management
Questions & Comments
Follow us: Mastodon Twitter LinkedIn YouTube