• Our new home,

    from summer 2021

  • Global Warming:

    the threat of a permafrost Carbon – climate feedback

  • We develop and improve

    stable isotopes techniques for ecological applications

  • Plants, fungi and bacteria interact

    at the root-soil interface

  • Probing the future:

    Climate Change experiments

  • Soil is fundamental to human life

  • Tropical rainforests

    hold the key to global net primary productivity

TER News

Latest publications

Seasonal dynamics of soil microbial growth, respiration, biomass, and carbon use efficiency in temperate soils

The next milestone of synthetic biology research relies on the development of customized microbes for specific industrial purposes. Metabolic pathways of an organism, for example, depict its chemical repertoire and its genetic makeup. If genes controlling such pathways can be identified, scientists can decide to enhance or rewrite them for different purposes depending on the organism and the desired metabolites. The lignocellulosic biorefinery has achieved good progress over the past few years with potential impact on global bioeconomy. This principle aims to produce different bio-based products like biochemical(s) or biofuel(s) from plant biomass under microbial actions. Meanwhile, yeasts have proven very useful for different biotechnological applications. Hence, their potentials in genetic/metabolic engineering can be fully explored for lignocellulosic biorefineries. For instance, the secretion of enzymes above the natural limit (aided by genetic engineering) would speed-up the down-line processes in lignocellulosic biorefineries and the cost. Thus, the next milestone would greatly require the development of synthetic yeasts with much more efficient metabolic capacities to achieve basic requirements for particular biorefinery. This review gave comprehensive overview of lignocellulosic biomaterials and their importance in bioeconomy. Many researchers have demonstrated the engineering of several ligninolytic enzymes in heterologous yeast hosts. However, there are still many factors needing to be well understood like the secretion time, titter value, thermal stability, pH tolerance, and reactivity of the recombinant enzymes. Here, we give a detailed account of the potentials of engineered yeasts being discussed, as well as the constraints associated with their development and applications.

Asemoloye MD, Bello TS, Oladoye PO, Gbadamosi MR, Babarinde SO, Adebami GE, Olowe OM, Temporiti MEE, Wanek W, Marchisio MA
2023 - Geoderma, 440: Article 116693

Identification of inulin-responsive bacteria in the gut microbiota via multi-modal activity-based sorting

Prebiotics are defined as non-digestible dietary components that promote the growth of beneficial gut microorganisms. In many cases, however, this capability is not systematically evaluated. Here, we develop a methodology for determining prebiotic-responsive bacteria using the popular dietary supplement inulin. We first identify microbes with a capacity to bind inulin using mesoporous silica nanoparticles functionalized with inulin. 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing of sorted cells revealed that the ability to bind inulin was widespread in the microbiota. We further evaluate which taxa are metabolically stimulated by inulin and find that diverse taxa from the phyla Firmicutes and Actinobacteria respond to inulin, and several isolates of these taxa can degrade inulin. Incubation with another prebiotic, xylooligosaccharides (XOS), in contrast, shows a more robust bifidogenic effect. Interestingly, the Coriobacteriia Eggerthella lenta and Gordonibacter urolithinfaciens are indirectly stimulated by the inulin degradation process, expanding our knowledge of inulin-responsive bacteria.

Riva A, Rasoulimehrabani H, Cruz-Rubio JM, Schnorr SL, von Baeckmann C, Inan D, Nikolov G, Herbold CW, Hausmann B, Pjevac P, Schintlmeister A, Spittler A, Palatinszky M, Kadunic A, Hieger N, Del Favero G, von Bergen M, Jehmlich N, Watzka M, Lee KS, Wiesenbauer J, Khadem S, ViernsteinH, Stocker R, Wagner M, Kaiser C, Richter A, Kleitz F, Berry D
2023 - Nature Communications, 14: Article 8210

Engineered yeasts and lignocellulosic biomaterials: shaping a new dimension for biorefinery and global bioeconomy

The next milestone of synthetic biology research relies on the development of customized microbes for specific industrial purposes. Metabolic pathways of an organism, for example, depict its chemical repertoire and its genetic makeup. If genes controlling such pathways can be identified, scientists can decide to enhance or rewrite them for different purposes depending on the organism and the desired metabolites. The lignocellulosic biorefinery has achieved good progress over the past few years with potential impact on global bioeconomy. This principle aims to produce different bio-based products like biochemical(s) or biofuel(s) from plant biomass under microbial actions. Meanwhile, yeasts have proven very useful for different biotechnological applications. Hence, their potentials in genetic/metabolic engineering can be fully explored for lignocellulosic biorefineries. For instance, the secretion of enzymes above the natural limit (aided by genetic engineering) would speed-up the down-line processes in lignocellulosic biorefineries and the cost. Thus, the next milestone would greatly require the develop-ment of synthetic yeasts with much more efficient metabolic capacities to achieve basic requirements for particular biorefinery. This review gave comprehensive overview of lignocellulosic biomaterials and their importance in bioeconomy. Many researchers have demonstrated the engineering of several ligninolytic enzymes in heterologous yeast hosts. However, there are still many factors needing to be well under-stood like the secretion time, titter value, thermal stability, pH tolerance, and reactivity of the recombi-nant enzymes. Here, we give a detailed account of the potentials of engineered yeasts being discussed, as well as the constraints associated with their development and applications.

Asemoloye MD, Bello TS, Oladoye PO, Gbadamosi MR, Babarinde SO, Adebami GE, Olowe OM, Temporiti MEE, Wanek W, Marchisio MA
2023 - Bioengineered, 14: Article 2269328

Lecture series

Microbial ecology of nitrogen cycling in paddy soils

Yong-Guan Zhu
Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences & Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
27.06.2019
09:00 h
Lecture Hall HS 5, UZA2 (Geocentre), Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna

How to meet the Paris 2°C target: Which are the main constraints that will need to be overcome?

Ivan Janssens
Centre of Excellence of Global Change Ecology, University of Antwerp, Belgium
15.11.2018
12:00 h
Lecture Hall HS2 (UZA 1), Althanstraße 14, 1090 Vienna

Soil C dynamics –when are microbial communities in control?

Naoise Nunan
Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences IEES Paris, France
25.10.2018
12:00 h
Lecture Hall HS2 (UZA 1), Althanstraße 14, 1090 Vienna