Publications

@article{brereton_reanalysis_2021,

title = {Reanalysis of the Mars500 experiment reveals common gut microbiome alterations in astronauts induced by long-duration confinement},

author = {N J B Brereton and F E Pitre and E Gonzalez},

url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2001037021001306},

doi = {10.1016/j.csbj.2021.03.040},

issn = {2001-0370},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-01-01},

urldate = {2021-05-28},

journal = {Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal},

volume = {19},

pages = {2223--2235},

abstract = {Maintaining astronaut health throughout long-duration spaceflight is essential to the feasibility of a manned mission to Mars. The ground-based Mars500 experiment investigated long-duration health by isolating six astronauts for 520 days, the longest controlled human confinement study conducted to date. After 520 days, astronauts had uniform strength and lean body mass losses, and increased fasting plasma glucose, calprotectin, and neutrophil levels characteristic of intestinal inflammation but previous analyses revealed no common significant changes in gut microbiota. This study reanalysed data from early (days 7–45) and late (days 420–520) faecal samples and identified 408 exact sequence variants (ESVs), including 213 shared by all astronauts. Thirty-two ESVs were significantly differentially abundant over time, including depletion of keystone resistant starch degrading, anti-inflammatory and insulin sensitivity-associated species, such as Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Ruminococcus bromii, Blautia luti, Anaerostipes hadrus, Roseburia faecis, and Lactobacillus rogosae, and enrichment of yet-to-be-cultured bacteria. Additionally, the extraordinary experimental confinement allowed observation of microbiota potentially shared between astronauts and their habitat. Forty-nine species were shared, representing 49% and 12% of the human and environmental microbiome diversity, respectively. These findings reveal the microbiota which significantly altered in relative abundance throughout confinement, including species known to influence inflammation and host glucose homeostasis consistent with astronaut symptoms. Identification of microbiome alterations after 520 days of isolation represents a missing piece connecting Mars500 astronaut physiological studies. Knowledge of the impact of long-term confinement upon the human microbiome helps to improve our understanding of how humans interact with their habitats and is a valuable step forward towards enabling long-duration spaceflight.},

keywords = {16S rRNA gene, Astronaut health, Mars, Microbiome, Space science},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{brereton_co-cropping_2020,

title = {Co-cropping with three phytoremediation crops influences rhizosphere microbiome community in contaminated soil},

author = {N J B Brereton and E Gonzalez and D Desjardins and M Labrecque and F E Pitre},

url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969719350594},

doi = {10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135067},

issn = {0048-9697},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-01-01},

urldate = {2021-05-26},

journal = {Science of The Total Environment},

volume = {711},

pages = {135067},

abstract = {Human industrial activities have left millions of hectares of land polluted with trace element metals and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) around the world. Although contaminated sites are environmentally damaging, high economic costs often discourage soil remediation efforts. Phytoremediation is a potential green technology solution but can be challenging due to the diversity of anthropogenic contaminants. Co-cropping could provide improved tolerance to diverse soil challenges by taking advantage of distinct crop capabilities. Co-cropping of three species with potentially complementary functions, Festuca arundinacea, Salix miyabeana and Medicago sativa, perform well on diversely contaminated soils. Here, rhizosphere microbiomes of each crop in monoculture and in all co-cropping combinations were compared using 16S rRNA gene amplification, sequencing and differential abundance analysis. The hyperaccumulating F. arundinacea rhizosphere microbiome included putative plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) and metal tolerance species, such as Rhizorhapis suberifaciens, Cellvibrio fibrivorans and Pseudomonas lini. The rhizosphere microbiome of the fast-growing tree S. miyabeana included diverse taxa involved in POP degradation, including the species Phenylobacterium panacis. The well-characterised nitrogen-fixing M. sativa microbiome species, Sinorhizobium meliloti, was identified alongside others involved in nutrient acquisition and putative yet-to-be-cultured Candidatus saccharibacteria (TM7-1 group). The majority of differentially abundant rhizosphere-associated bacterial species were maintained in co-cropping pairs, with pairs having higher numbers of differentially abundant taxa than monocultures in all cases. This was not the case when all three crops were co-cropped, where most host-specific bacterial species were not detected as differentially abundant, indicating the potential for reduced rhizosphere functionality. The crops cultivated in pairs here retained rhizosphere microbiome bacteria involved in these monoculture ecosystem services of plant growth promotion, POP tolerance and degradation, and improved nutrient acquisition. These findings provide a promising outlook of the potential for complementary co-cropping strategies for phytoremediation of the multifaceted anthropogenic pollution which can disastrously affect soils around the world.},

keywords = {16S rRNA, Co-cropping, Metagenomics, Microbiome, Phytoremediation, Rhizosphere},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{gonzalez_trees_2018,

title = {Trees, fungi and bacteria: tripartite metatranscriptomics of a root microbiome responding to soil contamination},

author = {E Gonzalez and F E Pitre and A P Pagé and J Marleau and W Guidi Nissim and M St-Arnaud and M Labrecque and S Joly and E Yergeau and N J B Brereton},

url = {https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-018-0432-5},

doi = {10.1186/s40168-018-0432-5},

issn = {2049-2618},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-01-01},

urldate = {2021-05-19},

journal = {Microbiome},

volume = {6},

number = {1},

pages = {53},

abstract = {One method for rejuvenating land polluted with anthropogenic contaminants is through phytoremediation, the reclamation of land through the cultivation of specific crops. The capacity for phytoremediation crops, such as Salix spp., to tolerate and even flourish in contaminated soils relies on a highly complex and predominantly cryptic interacting community of microbial life.},

keywords = {Metatranscriptomics, Microbiome, Phytoremediation, Rhizosphere, Salix},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}