Insight into functional and toxicological diversity of cyanobacterial mat communities in the Eel River

Presenter Information

Andreja Kust, Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA ; Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, California, USAFollow
Spencer Diamond, Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA ; Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, California, USAFollow
Keith Bouma-Gregson, U.S. Geological Survey, California Water Science Center, USAFollow
Jillian F. Banfield, Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA; Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA;Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA ; The University of Melbourne, Victoria, AustraliaFollow

Start Date

24-5-2022 5:45 PM

End Date

24-5-2022 7:00 PM

Abstract

Toxic benthic cyanobacteria have started to attract attention after long neglect due to increased reports of their potential for secondary metabolites production. Particularly, this includes potent neurotoxins in the anatoxin class. Cyanobacteria commonly grow on the surfaces on riverbeds and these biofilms consist of assemblages of cyanobacteria and other microorganisms. So far, the vast majority of studies have focused solely on the cyanobacterial component, neglecting the diversity of the whole microbial assemblage and their interactions. We sampled cyanobacterial mats from the Eel River and resolved their community composition using genome-resolved metagenomics. The analyses revealed the regular presence of a range of heterotopic and viral components alongside dominant cyanobacterial taxa. Cyanobacterial genomes often encoded biosynthetic gene clusters of known toxins, as well as other metabolites belonging to different secondary metabolite classes. Several biosynthetic gene clusters were found across examined cyanobacterial genomes, and the presence of specific heterotrophic components. Our findings raise the importance of examining and characterizing the full microbial community that exists within cyanobacterial mats to understand when cyanobacteria possess toxic gene clusters and how that is correlated with the presence of surrounding microbial assemblage.