title: Microbiome and Biocatalytic Bacteria in Monkey Cup (Nepenthes Pitcher) Digestive Fluid.
abstract: Tropical carnivorous plant, Nepenthes, locally known as "monkey cup", utilises its pitcher as a passive trap to capture insects. It then secretes enzymes into the pitcher fluid to digest the insects for nutrients acquisition. However, little is known about the microbiota and their activity in its pitcher fluid. Eighteen bacteria phyla were detected from the metagenome study in the Nepenthes pitcher fluid. Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria are the dominant phyla in the Nepenthes pitcher fluid. We also performed culturomics approach by isolating 18 bacteria from the Nepenthes pitcher fluid. Most of the bacterial isolates possess chitinolytic, proteolytic, amylolytic, and cellulolytic and xylanolytic activities. Fifteen putative chitinase genes were identified from the whole genome analysis on the genomes of the 18 bacteria isolated from Nepenthes pitcher fluid and expressed for chitinase assay. Of these, six clones possessed chitinase activity. In conclusion, our metagenome result shows that the Nepenthes pitcher fluid contains vast bacterial diversity and the culturomic studies confirmed the presence of biocatalytic bacteria within the Nepenthes pitcher juice which may act in symbiosis for the turn over of insects trapped in the Nepenthes pitcher fluid.
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetics and Molecular Biology, Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Malaysia.
authors.forename: Xin-Yue
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetics and Molecular Biology, Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Malaysia.
authors.forename: Kar-Wai
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetics and Molecular Biology, Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Malaysia.
authors.forename: Wai-Fong
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetics and Molecular Biology, Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Malaysia.
authors.forename: Kok-Gan
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Chan
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D055162:Biocatalysis; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D054892:Metagenome; D056186:Metagenomics; D064307:Microbiota; D010802:Phylogeny; D064028:Tracheophyta / Q000382:microbiology*
references.citation: Am J Bot. 1999 Oct;86(10):1382-90
references.pmid: 10523280
references.citation: J Appl Microbiol. 2000 Jul;89(1):76-84
references.pmid: 10945782
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2001 Jul 31;98(16):8979-84
references.pmid: 11481469
references.citation: Biosci Biotechnol Biochem. 2006 Apr;70(4):988-98
references.pmid: 16636468
references.citation: Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2006 Jun;17(3):241-9
references.pmid: 16704931
references.citation: J Exp Bot. 2006;57(11):2775-84
references.pmid: 16829546
references.citation: Appl Environ Microbiol. 2006 Aug;72(8):5289-96
references.pmid: 16885278
references.citation: BMC Evol Biol. 2007 Jun 26;7:96
references.pmid: 17594485
references.citation: Arthropod Struct Dev. 2004 Jul;33(3):187-99
references.pmid: 18089034
references.citation: Am Nat. 2002 Dec;160(6):784-802
references.pmid: 18707465
references.citation: BMC Bioinformatics. 2008 Sep 19;9:386
references.pmid: 18803844
references.citation: Nucleic Acids Res. 2009 Jan;37(Database issue):D141-5
references.pmid: 19004872
references.citation: FEMS Microbiol Ecol. 2009 Jun;68(3):312-9
references.pmid: 19453494
references.citation: J Biol Chem. 2009 Sep 11;284(37):24673-7
references.pmid: 19553672
references.citation: PLoS One. 2009 Oct 09;4(10):e7401
references.pmid: 19816594
references.citation: J Exp Bot. 2010 Mar;61(3):911-22
references.pmid: 20018905
references.citation: Appl Environ Microbiol. 2010 Mar;76(6):1851-60
references.pmid: 20097807
references.citation: BMC Bioinformatics. 2010 Mar 08;11:119
references.pmid: 20211023
references.citation: PLoS One. 2010 Dec 06;5(12):e14235
references.pmid: 21151913
references.citation: Ann Bot. 2011 Feb;107(2):181-94
references.pmid: 21159782
references.citation: J Bacteriol. 2011 Apr;193(8):1966-80
references.pmid: 21278295
references.citation: Microb Ecol. 2011 May;61(4):750-8
references.pmid: 21431933
references.citation: J Exp Bot. 2011 Aug;62(13):4639-47
references.pmid: 21633084
references.citation: Glycobiology. 2012 Jan;22(1):23-34
references.pmid: 21750098
references.citation: J Biosci Bioeng. 2011 Oct;112(4):315-20
references.pmid: 21778111
references.citation: FEBS J. 2011 Nov;278(21):3991-4001
references.pmid: 21838762
references.citation: Glycobiology. 2012 Mar;22(3):345-51
references.pmid: 21930651
references.citation: FEMS Microbiol Ecol. 2012 Mar;79(3):555-67
references.pmid: 22092381
references.citation: Mol Biol Evol. 2012 Oct;29(10):2971-85
references.pmid: 22490823
references.citation: Sensors (Basel). 2012;12(4):4846-59
references.pmid: 22666062
references.citation: J Proteomics. 2012 Aug 3;75(15):4844-52
references.pmid: 22705321
references.citation: J Bacteriol. 2012 Nov;194(22):6350
references.pmid: 23105081
references.citation: Nucleic Acids Res. 2013 Jan;41(Database issue):D8-D20
references.pmid: 23193264
references.citation: Ann Bot. 2013 Mar;111(3):375-83
references.pmid: 23264234
references.citation: Front Plant Sci. 2013 Jan 31;4:10
references.pmid: 23386858
references.citation: J Pharm Bioallied Sci. 2013 Jan;5(1):21-9
references.pmid: 23559820
references.citation: Mycobiology. 2010 Mar;38(1):74-7
references.pmid: 23956630
references.citation: Sensors (Basel). 2013 Sep 30;13(10):13217-27
references.pmid: 24084115
references.citation: Mol Biol Evol. 2013 Dec;30(12):2725-9
references.pmid: 24132122
references.citation: Gut Pathog. 2013 Oct 22;5(1):29
references.pmid: 24148830
references.citation: Oecologia. 1997 Nov;112(4):464-471
references.pmid: 28307622
references.citation: Nucleic Acids Res. 1980 Oct 10;8(19):4321-5
references.pmid: 7433111
references.citation: Anal Biochem. 1993 Jan;208(1):74-9
references.pmid: 8434798
references.citation: Appl Environ Microbiol. 1996 Feb;62(2):316-22
references.pmid: 8593035
references.citation: J Bacteriol. 1996 Sep;178(17):5065-70
references.pmid: 8752320
references.citation: Microbiology. 1996 Jul;142 ( Pt 7):1581-9
references.pmid: 8757722