Examining the potential of plastic-fed black soldier fly larvae (Hermetia illucens) as "bioincubators" of plastic-degrading bacteria.

Aims: Larvae of the black soldier fly (BSFL), Hermetia illucens, are recognized for their remarkable feeding flexibility and ability to convert a variety of organic waste streams into useful end products. Their ability to feed on both harmful and recalcitrant waste streams is thought to be due in part to plasticity in their gut microbiota, which shifts rapidly to select for taxa better suited to the incoming diet. Here, we aimed to exploit this feeding plasticity by using BSFL as "bioincubators," to grow and isolate plastic-degrading bacteria.

Three new species (, ) described from Antarctic soils.

The genus includes several species frequently isolated from extreme environments worldwide, including cold environments such as Antarctica. This study describes three new species of - , , and -isolated from Antarctic soils. These species represent the first taxa to be formally described from Antarctic soil samples, expanding our understanding of fungal biodiversity in this extreme environment.

Taxonomic and genomic attributes of oligotrophic soil bacteria.

Not all bacteria are fast growers. In soil as in other environments, bacteria exist along a continuum-from copiotrophs that can grow rapidly under resource-rich conditions to oligotrophs that are adapted to life in the "slow lane." However, the field of microbiology is built almost exclusively on the study of copiotrophs due, in part, to the ease of studying them .

Strong Dispersal Limitation of Microbial Communities at Shackleton Glacier, Antarctica.

Microbial communities can be structured by both deterministic and stochastic processes, but the relative importance of these processes remains unknown. The ambiguity partly arises from an inability to disentangle soil microbial processes from confounding factors, such as aboveground plant communities or anthropogenic disturbance. In this study, we characterized the relative contributions of determinism and stochasticity to assembly processes of soil bacterial communities across a large environmental gradient of undisturbed Antarctic soils.

Estimating biodiversity across the tree of life on Mount Everest's southern flank with environmental DNA.

Species composition in high-alpine ecosystems is a useful indicator for monitoring climatic and environmental changes at the upper limits of habitable environments. We used environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis to document the breadth of high-alpine biodiversity present on Earth's highest mountain, Mt. Everest (8,849 m a.

A Metagenomic Investigation of Spatial and Temporal Changes in Sewage Microbiomes across a University Campus.

Wastewater microbial communities are not static and can vary significantly across time and space, but this variation and the factors driving the observed spatiotemporal variation often remain undetermined. We used a shotgun metagenomic approach to investigate changes in wastewater microbial communities across 17 locations in a sewer network, with samples collected from each location over a 3-week period. Fecal material-derived bacteria constituted a relatively small fraction of the taxa found in the collected samples, highlighting the importance of environmental sources to the sewage microbiome.

Elevational Constraints on the Composition and Genomic Attributes of Microbial Communities in Antarctic Soils.

The inland soils found on the Antarctic continent represent one of the more challenging environments for microbial life on Earth. Nevertheless, Antarctic soils harbor unique bacterial and archaeal (prokaryotic) communities able to cope with extremely cold and dry conditions. These communities are not homogeneous, and the taxonomic composition and functional capabilities (genomic attributes) of these communities across environmental gradients remain largely undetermined.

Response of Antarctic soil fauna to climate-driven changes since the Last Glacial Maximum.

Understanding how terrestrial biotic communities have responded to glacial recession since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) can inform present and future responses of biota to climate change. In Antarctica, the Transantarctic Mountains (TAM) have experienced massive environmental changes associated with glacial retreat since the LGM, yet we have few clues as to how its soil invertebrate-dominated animal communities have responded. Here, we surveyed soil invertebrate fauna from above and below proposed LGM elevations along transects located at 12 features across the Shackleton Glacier region.