Lisa Y. Stein

TL;DR: This Consensus Statement documents the central role and global importance of microorganisms in climate change biology and puts humanity on notice that the impact of climate change will depend heavily on responses of micro organisms, which are essential for achieving an environmentally sustainable future.

TL;DR: A pure culture of a comammox bacterium is isolated and it is shown that it is adapted to slow growth in oligotrophic and dynamic habitats on the basis of a high affinity for ammonia, low maximum rate of ammonia oxidation, high growth yield compared to canonical nitrifiers, and genomic potential for alternative metabolisms.

TL;DR: Although the Haber-Bosch process more than quadrupled the productivity of agricultural crops, chemical fertilizers and other anthropogenic sources of fixed nitrogen now far exceed natural contributions, leading to unprecedented environmental degradation.

TL;DR: Genetic and biochemical studies support a model for the enzyme consisting of three subunits and metal centers of copper and iron that initiates ammonia oxidation, and knowledge of hydroxylamine oxidoreductase, which oxidizes hydroxyamine formed by ammonia monooxygenase to nitrite, is informed by a crystal structure and detailed spectroscopic and catalytic studies.

TL;DR: Differences in ammonia-dependent chemolithotrophy between bacteria and the Thaumarchaeota are identified, a central catabolic role of NO only in the Thumarchaeotal pathway is advanced and stark differences in how the two microbial cohorts contribute to N2O emissions are revealed.