Biology subjects

Jensen, T. B. N.

Publications and source records attributed to Jensen, T. B. N..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

From soil to sea: unravelling the metabolic versatility and social dynamics of Myxococcota bacteria from different Danish environments

Myxococcota are globally distributed bacteria renowned for their remarkable ecological and biotechnological significance due to their complex lifestyles, social behaviour, and secondary metabolite production. Despite their ubiquity in diverse environments, including soil, marine, and extreme habitats, their diversity and ecological roles remain underexplored. Here, we utilized the Microflora Danica dataset, encompassing >10,000 metagenomes and >400 rRNA gene datasets from various environments in Denmark, to investigate the distribution, diversity, and metabolic potential of Myxococcota. We show that Myxococcota are ubiquitous but strongly structured by environment, with soil-associated lineages enriched in predatory and multicellular development traits, whereas aquatic-associated taxa exhibit alternative lifestyles, including anaerobic metabolism and phototrophy. Comparative genomic analysis reveals widespread potential for secondary metabolite production, hydrocarbon degradation, and organohalide transformation, alongside diverse contribution to carbon and nutrient cycling. Together, these findings redefine Myxococcota as a functionally diverse and ecologically differentiated phylum, extending beyond canonical predation and multicellularity, and underscore their promise as large reservoir of unexplored functional potential for biotechnological applications in drug discovery and environmental remediation.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2026

Ecological specificity and interconnectivity in Danish environmental resistomes

The environment plays a critical role in "One Health", facilitating the evolution, persistence, and dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). However, environmental resistomes have primarily been characterized through scattered studies of individual habitats, limiting our understanding of baseline resistome structure and connectivity across landscapes at a national level. Here, we analyzed metagenomes from 7,000 Danish environmental samples (24 Tbp), collected from 21 distinct habitats including soils, sediments, aquatic environments and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). We identified core ARGs for establishing the environmental baseline, and habitat-associated indicator ARGs for facilitating source tracking. Using an additional 110 deep long-read metagenomes (9 Tbp data), we found a subset of cross-habitat commonly abundant ARGs was carried by diverse hosts and associated with mobile genetic elements, suggesting their potential role in resistome connectivity across ecosystems. Additionally, although natural habitats had much lower resistome relative abundance and transferability than human-associated habitats, some mobile environmental ARGs exhibited links to those in human pathogens. Our results support the implementation of environmental resistome surveillance by providing an environmental ARG baseline, enabling future ARG source-tracking and cross-habitat ARG dissemination assessment.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2023

High-throughput DNA extraction and cost-effective miniaturized metagenome and amplicon library preparation of soil samples for DNA sequencing

Reductions in sequencing costs have enabled widespread use of shotgun metagenomics and amplicon sequencing, which have drastically improved our understanding of the microbial world. However, large sequencing projects are now hampered by the cost of library preparation and low sample throughput. Here, we benchmarked three high-throughput DNA extraction methods: ZymoBIOMICS 96 MagBead DNA Kit, MP BiomedicalsTM FastDNATM-96 Soil Microbe DNA Kit, and DNeasy(R) 96 PowerSoil(R) Pro QIAcube(R) HT Kit. The DNA extractions were evaluated based on length, quality, quantity, and the observed microbial community across five diverse soil types. DNA extraction of all soil types was successful for all kits, however DNeasy(R) 96 PowerSoil(R) Pro QIAcube(R) HT Kit excelled across all performance parameters. We further used the nanoliter dispensing robot I.DOT One to miniaturize Illumina amplicon and metagenomic library preparation volumes by a factor of 5 and 10, respectively, with no significant impact on the observed microbial communities. With these protocols, DNA extraction, metagenomic library preparation, or amplicon library preparation for one 96-well plate are approx. 3, 5, and 6 hours, respectively. Furthermore, the miniaturization of amplicon and metagenome library preparation reduces the chemical and plastic costs from 5.0 to 3.6 and 59 to 7.3 USD pr. sample.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2022

Closed genomes uncover a saltwater species of Candidatus Electronema and shed new light on the boundary between marine and freshwater cable bacteria

Cable bacteria of the Desulfobulbaceae family are centimeter-long filamentous bacteria, which are capable of conducting long-distance electron transfer. Currently, all cable bacteria are classified into two candidate genera: Candidatus Electronema, typically found in freshwater environments, and Candidatus Electrothrix, typically found in saltwater environments. This taxonomic framework is based on both 16S rRNA gene sequences and metagenome-assembled genome (MAG) phylogenies. However, most of the currently available MAGs are highly fragmented, incomplete, and thus likely miss key genes essential for deciphering the physiology of cable bacteria. To address this, we performed Nanopore long read (total 162.4 Gbp) and Illumina short read (total 148.3 Gbp) shotgun sequencing of selected environmental samples and a single-strain enrichment of Ca. Electronema aureum. We recovered multiple cable bacteria MAGs, including two circular and one single-contig. Phylogenomic analysis, also confirmed by 16S rRNA gene-based phylogeny, classified one circular MAG and the single-contig MAG as novel species of cable bacteria, which we propose to name Ca. Electronema halotolerans and Ca. Electrothrix laxa, respectively. The Ca. Electronema halotolerans, despite belonging to the previously recognized freshwater genus of cable bacteria, was retrieved from brackish-water sediment. Metabolic predictions showed several adaptations to a high salinity environment, similar to the "saltwater" Ca. Electrothrix species, indicating how Ca. Electronema halotolerans may be the evolutionary link between marine and freshwater cable bacteria lineages.

microbiology↗