Nitrifiers: More than 100 years from isolation to genome sequences

Abstract

Despite a wealth of knowledge about nitrification, information describing ammonia- and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria remains limited-in part because relatively few microbiologists continue to work on these difficult-to-grow organisms. Analysis of the Nitrosomonas europaea genome could help to explain some of its metabolic peculiarities, such as its ability to degrade simple sugars without deriving metabolic energy. Genomic analyses may explain how ammonia-oxidizing and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria form aggregates in which they mutually benefit. Anammox, an anaerobic process for oxidizing ammonia that, coupled to reduction of nitrite, likely contributes significantly to the global flux of ammonia.