Isoprene production by Sphagnum moss is balanced by microbial uptake, as revealed by selective inhibitors

Murrell, Colin, Carrion, Ornella, Wright, Chloe L., Crombie, Andrew and Lehtovirta-Morley, Laura (2025) Isoprene production by Sphagnum moss is balanced by microbial uptake, as revealed by selective inhibitors. Environmental Microbiology, 27 (6). ISSN 1462-2912

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Abstract

Northern peatlands, ecosystems which store enormous amounts of carbon, and yet are major sources of methane and plant-derived volatiles including isoprene, are predicted to be greatly affected by climate change. Isoprene, the major volatile secondary metabolite released by plants, can support the carbon and energy needs of a variety of bacteria. Here we show that Sphagnum moss from an acidic bog harboured highly active isoprene degraders which consumed the vast majority of the plant-produced isoprene, preventing its release to the atmosphere. We quantified the potential for microbial isoprene uptake in the moss and, using alkyne inhibitors specific to either isoprene monooxygenase of bona fide isoprene degraders, or to the enzymes of other microbes capable of its fortuitous co-oxidation, we show that methane utilizers, for example, did not oxidise significant isoprene in incubations. Our technique enabled the separate quantification of plant isoprene production and microbial uptake, revealing that although atmospheric isoprene concentrations are typically low, the microbes contained in, or in close association with the moss were capable of isoprene uptake at the plant-generated isoprene concentration. Analysis of the bacterial community suggested that the isoprene degraders in this environment belonged to novel groups distinct from extant strains with this capability.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data Availability Statement: Sequence data are available at NCBI under accession number PRJNA272922: SRX26443778–80 (amplicons) and SRX26443781 (long reads). Funding: This work was supported by the Royal Society (DH150187) and European Research Council (UNITY 852993 and 694578-IsoMet).
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sphagnum,biogeochemical cycles,isoprene,methanotrophs,monooxygenase,peatlands,volatiles,ecology, evolution, behavior and systematics,microbiology ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1100/1105
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Biology Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Molecular Microbiology Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Wolfson Centre for Advanced Environmental Microbiology
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	16 May 2025 09:30
Last Modified:	19 Jun 2025 00:32
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/99285
DOI:	10.1111/1462-2920.70114

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