A New Approach to Numerical Analyses of Microbial Quinone Profiles in the Environment.

Abstract

The quinone profiles of microbial biomass samples from wastewater and natural aquatic environments were studied. A soil sample was also analyzed for comparison. Attempts were made to perform numerical analyses on these profiles by using three parameters, the microbial divergence index (MDq), the bioenergetic divergence index (BDq), and the dissimilarity index (D), and the algorithm of the neighbor-joining method was used to make clustering trees based on D value matrix data. For these purposes, a new personal computer program named "BioCLUST" was developed. The neighbor-joining dendrograms were useful for the grouping of different microbial communities based on D value matrix data. Also, the communities could be classified effectively by plotting MDq data against BDq values. The numerical analysis indicated that sewage activated sludges formed a tight cluster independent of the location of plants and scale of reactors. This was also the case for influent raw sewage. Sewage microbial mats and river water were located in a group with the raw sewage cluster as the sister group. The soil and lake showed their respective independent lines. The use of our new program should facilitate microbial community analyses based on quinone patterns.

Detection of microbial groups metabolizing a substrate in soil based on the [l4C] quinone profile

“…Fungi contain mainly Q-9 or Q-lO(H 2 ) (Fujie et al 1998a). Other quinones are indicators of bacteria (Fujie et al 1998a;Iwasaki and Hiraishi 1998). The [l4C] quinone profile, therefore, may enable to detect the changes in the bacterial groups with a higher sensitivity than those in fungal groups.…”

“…The [l4C] quinone profiles of the FYM-and CF + FYM-soils differed from those of the CF-and NF-soils by the presence of [14C]-labeled MK-1O(H4) and MK-others (highly hydrogenated menaquinones), which indicated the presence of Actinomycineae, Micromonosporineae, Pseudonocardineae, Streptomycineae, and/or Streptosporangineae in the Class Actinobacteria (Yokota 1998). The FYM-soil also contained [14C] Q-9, which indicates the presence of the gamma subdivision of Proteobacteria and fungi (Fujie et al 1998a;Iwasaki and Hiraishi 1998). CF-soil was characterized by [ l4 C]Q-8.…”

“…The common characteristic of the [14C] quinone profiles in all the soils was the large proportion of [l4C]MK-6 and [14C]MK-8(H 4 )+9, compared to the total quinone profile. The presence of MK-6 may indicate the presence of microorganisms belonging to Cytophaga-Flavobacterium cluster, the delta and epsilon subdivisions of Proteobacteria and/or Gram positive bacteria with a low G+C content (Iwasaki and Hiraishi 1998). The presence of MK-8(H4) and MK-9 would indicate Corynebacterineae, Micrococcineae, Streptosporangineae, Pseudonocardineae, and/ or Propionibacterineae of the Class Actinobacteria (Yokota 1998).…”

“…Most of the microorganisms contain a major respiratory quinone although some minor quinones are also present (Collins and Jones 1981). Each quinone has been assigned to the corresponding microbial groups in soil (Fujie et al 1998a;Iwasaki and Hiraishi 1998).…”

Analysis of the differences in microbial community structures between suspended and sessile microorganisms in rivers based on quinone profile.

“…So, the relative content of each group of quinones may reflect the energy metabolic characteristics of an ecosystem (Iwasaki and Hiraishi, 1998). The differences in quinone compositions between suspended and sessile microorganisms can be successfully illustrated with a triangle diagram as shown in Fig.…”