Journal
CURRENT OPINION IN BIOTECHNOLOGY
Volume 41, Issue -, Pages 43-52Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.copbio.2016.04.022
Keywords
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Funding
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (through the Research Center/Excellence Cluster MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences)
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Price
- National Science Foundation [OCE-1046144]
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Microorganisms in soils and sediments are highly abundant and phylogenetically diverse, but their specific metabolic activity and function in the environment is often not well constrained. To address this critical aspect in environmental biogeochemistry, different methods involving stable isotope probing (SIP) and detection of the isotope label in a variety of molecular compounds have been developed. Here we review recent progress in lipid-SIP, a technique that combines the assimilation of specific C-13-labeled metabolic substrates such as inorganic carbon, methane, glucose and amino acids into diagnostic membrane lipid compounds. Using the structural characteristics of certain lipid types in combination with genetic molecular techniques, the SIP approach reveals the activity and function of distinct microbial groups in the environment. More recently, deuterium labeling in the form of deuterated water (D2O) extended the lipid-SIP portfolio. Since lipid biosynthetic pathways involve hydrogen (H+) uptake from water, lipid production can be inferred from the detection of D-assimilation into these compounds. Furthermore, by combining D2O and C-13-inorganic carbon (IC) labeling in a dual-SIP approach, rates of auto-and heterotrophic carbon fixation can be estimated. We discuss the design, analytical prerequisites, data processing and interpretation of single and dual-SIP experiments and highlight a case study on anaerobic methanotrophic communities inhabiting hydrothermally heated marine sediments.
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