Summary paragraphNitrification, the oxidation of ammonia (NH3) via nitrite (NO2-) to nitrate (NO3-), is a key process of the biogeochemical nitrogen cycle. For decades, ammonia and nitrite oxidation were thought to be separately catalyzed by ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and archaea (AOA), and by nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB). The recent discovery of complete ammonia oxidizers (comammox) in the NOB genus Nitrospira1,2, which alone convert ammonia to nitrate, raised questions about the ecological niches where comammox Nitrospira successfully compete with canonical nitrifiers. Here we isolated the first pure culture of a comammox bacterium, Nitrospira inopinata, and show that it is adapted to slow growth in oligotrophic and dynamic habitats based on a high affinity for ammonia, low maximum rate of ammonia oxidation, high growth yield compared to canonical nitrifiers, and genomic potential for alternative metabolisms. The nitrification kinetics of four AOA from soil and hot springs were determined for comparison. Their surprisingly poor substrate affinities and lower growth yields reveal that, in contrast to earlier assumptions, not all AOA are most competitive in strongly oligotrophic environments and that N. inopinata has the highest substrate affinity of all analyzed ammonia oxidizer isolates except the marine AOA Nitrosopumilus maritimus SCM13. These results suggest a role of comammox organisms for nitrification under oligotrophic and dynamic conditions.

Obligate methanotrophs belonging to the Phyla Proteobacteria and Verrucomicrobia require oxygen for respiration and methane oxidation; nevertheless, aerobic methanotrophs are abundant and active in low oxygen environments. While genomes of some aerobic methanotrophs encode putative nitrogen oxide reductases, it is not understood whether these metabolic modules are used for NOx detoxification, denitrification or other purposes. Here we demonstrate using microsensor measurements that a gammaproteobacterial methanotroph Methylomonas denitrificans sp. nov. strain FJG1(T) couples methane oxidation to nitrate reduction under oxygen limitation, releasing nitrous oxide as a terminal product. Illumina RNA-Seq data revealed differential expression of genes encoding a denitrification pathway previously unknown to methanotrophs as well as the pxmABC operon in M. denitrificans sp. nov. strain FJG1(T) in response to hypoxia. Physiological and transcriptome data indicate that genetic inventory encoding the denitrification pathway is upregulated only upon availability of nitrate under oxygen limitation. In addition, quantitation of ATP levels demonstrates that the denitrification pathway employs inventory such as nitrate reductase NarGH serving M. denitrificans sp. nov. strain FJG1(T) to conserve energy during oxygen limitation. This study unravelled an unexpected metabolic flexibility of aerobic methanotrophs, thereby assigning these bacteria a new role at the metabolic intersection of the carbon and nitrogen cycles.

Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) and nitric oxide (NO) are atmospheric trace gases that contribute to climate change and affect stratospheric and ground-level ozone concentrations. Ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and archaea (AOA) are key players in the nitrogen cycle and major producers of N 2 O and NO globally. However, nothing is known about N 2 O and NO production by the recently discovered and widely distributed complete ammonia oxidizers (comammox). Here, we show that the comammox bacterium Nitrospira inopinata is sensitive to inhibition by an NO scavenger, cannot denitrify to N 2 O, and emits N 2 O at levels that are comparable to AOA but much lower than AOB. Furthermore, we demonstrate that N 2 O formed by N. inopinata formed under varying oxygen regimes originates from abiotic conversion of hydroxylamine. Our findings indicate that comammox microbes may produce less N 2 O during nitrification than AOB.

Aerobic methane-oxidizing bacteria (MOB) are a diverse group of microorganisms that are ubiquitous in natural environments. Along with anaerobic MOB and archaea, aerobic methanotrophs are critical for attenuating emission of methane to the atmosphere. Clearly, nitrogen availability in the form of ammonium and nitrite have strong effects on methanotrophic activity and their natural community structures. Previous findings show that nitrite amendment inhibits the activity of some cultivated methanotrophs; however, the physiological pathways that allow some strains to transform nitrite, expression of gene inventories, as well as the electron sources that support this activity remain largely uncharacterized. Here we show that Methylomicrobium album strain BG8 utilizes methane, methanol, formaldehyde, formate, ethane, ethanol, and ammonia to support denitrification activity under hypoxia only in the presence of nitrite. We also demonstrate that transcript abundance of putative denitrification genes, nirS and one of two norB genes, increased in response to nitrite. Furthermore, we found that transcript abundance of pxmA, encoding the alpha subunit of a putative copper-containing monooxygenase, increased in response to both nitrite and hypoxia. Our results suggest that expression of denitrification genes, found widely within genomes of aerobic methanotrophs, allow the coupling of substrate oxidation to the reduction of nitrogen oxide terminal electron acceptors under oxygen limitation. The present study expands current knowledge of the metabolic flexibility of methanotrophs by revealing that a diverse array of electron donors support nitrite reduction to nitrous oxide under hypoxia.

Nitrification, the oxidation of ammonia to nitrate, is an essential process in the biogeochemical nitrogen cycle. The first step of nitrification, ammonia oxidation, is performed by three, often co-occurring guilds of chemolithoautotrophs: ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), archaea (AOA), and complete ammonia oxidizers (comammox). Substrate kinetics are considered to be a major niche-differentiating factor between these guilds, but few AOA strains have been kinetically characterized. Here, the ammonia oxidation kinetic properties of 12 AOA representing all major cultivated phylogenetic lineages were determined using microrespirometry. Members of the genus Nitrosocosmicus have the lowest affinity for both ammonia and total ammonium of any characterized AOA, and these values are similar to previously determined ammonia and total ammonium affinities of AOB. This contrasts previous assumptions that all AOA possess much higher substrate affinities than their comammox or AOB counterparts. The substrate affinity of ammonia oxidizers correlated with their cell surface area to volume ratios. In addition, kinetic measurements across a range of pH values supports the hypothesis that—like for AOB—ammonia and not ammonium is the substrate for the ammonia monooxygenase enzyme of AOA and comammox. Together, these data will facilitate predictions and interpretation of ammonia oxidizer community structures and provide a robust basis for establishing testable hypotheses on competition between AOB, AOA, and comammox.