Clouds influence the functioning of airborne microorganisms
<p>Airborne microorganisms can remain at altitude for several days, exposed to multiple environmental constraints that prevent or limit microbial activity, the most important of which is probably the lack of available liquid water. Clouds, i.e., air masses containing liquid water, could offer...
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| Language: | English |
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Copernicus Publications
2025-03-01
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| Series: | Biogeosciences |
| Online Access: | https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/22/1257/2025/bg-22-1257-2025.pdf |
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| author | R. Péguilhan R. Péguilhan F. Rossi F. Rossi M. Joly E. Nasr B. Batut B. Batut F. Enault B. Ervens P. Amato P. Amato |
| author_facet | R. Péguilhan R. Péguilhan F. Rossi F. Rossi M. Joly E. Nasr B. Batut B. Batut F. Enault B. Ervens P. Amato P. Amato |
| author_sort | R. Péguilhan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <p>Airborne microorganisms can remain at altitude for several days, exposed to multiple environmental constraints that prevent or limit microbial activity, the most important of which is probably the lack of available liquid water. Clouds, i.e., air masses containing liquid water, could offer more favorable conditions. In order to investigate the influence of clouds on the functioning of airborne microorganisms, we captured aerosols in a nucleic acid preservation buffer from a high-altitude mountain meteorological station under cloudy and clear-atmosphere conditions and examined the metatranscriptomes. The specificities of aeromicrobiome's functioning in clouds and a clear atmosphere were then decrypted using differential expression analysis (DEA). The data reveal a higher RNA : DNA content in clouds than in the clear atmosphere, suggesting higher metabolic activity, and the overrepresentation of microbial transcripts related to energy metabolism, the processing of carbon and nitrogen compounds, intracellular signaling, metabolic regulations, and transmembrane transports. Stress response in clouds tends towards responses to osmotic shocks and starvation rather than oxidants in a clear atmosphere. Autophagy processes in eukaryotes (macropexophagy, i.e., the recycling of peroxisomes) could help to alleviate the limited amounts of nutrients in the restricted microenvironments provided by cloud droplets. The whole phenomenon resembles the rapid resumption of microbial activity in dry soils after rewetting by rain, which is known as the Birch effect and is described here for the first time for the atmosphere. This work provides unprecedented information on the modulations of an aeromicrobiome's functioning in relation to atmospheric conditions. In addition to contributing to the processing and fate of chemical compounds in the atmosphere, cloud-induced modulations of biological processes could have ecological repercussions by shaping airborne microbial diversity and their capacity to invade surface environments.</p> |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e344a8a05f95486bb836e884b73039c5 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1726-4170 1726-4189 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
| publisher | Copernicus Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Biogeosciences |
| spelling | doaj-art-e344a8a05f95486bb836e884b73039c52025-08-20T03:16:21ZengCopernicus PublicationsBiogeosciences1726-41701726-41892025-03-01221257127510.5194/bg-22-1257-2025Clouds influence the functioning of airborne microorganismsR. Péguilhan0R. Péguilhan1F. Rossi2F. Rossi3M. Joly4E. Nasr5B. Batut6B. Batut7F. Enault8B. Ervens9P. Amato10P. Amato11Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont Auvergne INP, CNRS, Institut de Chimie de Clermont-Ferrand, 63000 Clermont-Ferrand, Francenow at: Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, DenmarkUniversité Clermont Auvergne, Clermont Auvergne INP, CNRS, Institut de Chimie de Clermont-Ferrand, 63000 Clermont-Ferrand, Francenow at: Département de Biochimie, de Microbiologie et de Bio-informatique, Faculté des Sciences et de Génie, Université Laval, Québec, CanadaUniversité Clermont Auvergne, Clermont Auvergne INP, CNRS, Institut de Chimie de Clermont-Ferrand, 63000 Clermont-Ferrand, FranceDepartment of Computer Science, University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg, GermanyDepartment of Computer Science, University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg, Germanynow at: Institut Français de Bioinformatique, CNRS UAR 3601, France, and Mésocentre Clermont-Auvergne, Université Clermont Auvergne, Aubiere, FranceUniversité Clermont Auvergne, CNRS, Laboratoire Microorganismes: Génome et Environnement (LMGE), 63000 Clermont-Ferrand, FranceUniversité Clermont Auvergne, Clermont Auvergne INP, CNRS, Institut de Chimie de Clermont-Ferrand, 63000 Clermont-Ferrand, FranceUniversité Clermont Auvergne, Clermont Auvergne INP, CNRS, Institut de Chimie de Clermont-Ferrand, 63000 Clermont-Ferrand, FranceUniversité Clermont Auvergne, CNRS, Laboratoire Microorganismes: Génome et Environnement (LMGE), 63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France<p>Airborne microorganisms can remain at altitude for several days, exposed to multiple environmental constraints that prevent or limit microbial activity, the most important of which is probably the lack of available liquid water. Clouds, i.e., air masses containing liquid water, could offer more favorable conditions. In order to investigate the influence of clouds on the functioning of airborne microorganisms, we captured aerosols in a nucleic acid preservation buffer from a high-altitude mountain meteorological station under cloudy and clear-atmosphere conditions and examined the metatranscriptomes. The specificities of aeromicrobiome's functioning in clouds and a clear atmosphere were then decrypted using differential expression analysis (DEA). The data reveal a higher RNA : DNA content in clouds than in the clear atmosphere, suggesting higher metabolic activity, and the overrepresentation of microbial transcripts related to energy metabolism, the processing of carbon and nitrogen compounds, intracellular signaling, metabolic regulations, and transmembrane transports. Stress response in clouds tends towards responses to osmotic shocks and starvation rather than oxidants in a clear atmosphere. Autophagy processes in eukaryotes (macropexophagy, i.e., the recycling of peroxisomes) could help to alleviate the limited amounts of nutrients in the restricted microenvironments provided by cloud droplets. The whole phenomenon resembles the rapid resumption of microbial activity in dry soils after rewetting by rain, which is known as the Birch effect and is described here for the first time for the atmosphere. This work provides unprecedented information on the modulations of an aeromicrobiome's functioning in relation to atmospheric conditions. In addition to contributing to the processing and fate of chemical compounds in the atmosphere, cloud-induced modulations of biological processes could have ecological repercussions by shaping airborne microbial diversity and their capacity to invade surface environments.</p>https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/22/1257/2025/bg-22-1257-2025.pdf |
| spellingShingle | R. Péguilhan R. Péguilhan F. Rossi F. Rossi M. Joly E. Nasr B. Batut B. Batut F. Enault B. Ervens P. Amato P. Amato Clouds influence the functioning of airborne microorganisms Biogeosciences |
| title | Clouds influence the functioning of airborne microorganisms |
| title_full | Clouds influence the functioning of airborne microorganisms |
| title_fullStr | Clouds influence the functioning of airborne microorganisms |
| title_full_unstemmed | Clouds influence the functioning of airborne microorganisms |
| title_short | Clouds influence the functioning of airborne microorganisms |
| title_sort | clouds influence the functioning of airborne microorganisms |
| url | https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/22/1257/2025/bg-22-1257-2025.pdf |
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