Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology · Environmental Science
Professor Sukhwan Yoon's research lab focuses on microbial biogeochemistry, particularly the microbial transformation of nitrogen oxides and their roles in greenhouse gas emissions and nutrient cycling in agroecosystems. The lab investigates key pathways such as denitrification and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA), examining how environmental factors like carbon-to-nitrogen ratios, pH, and electron acceptor availability influence microbial metabolism and nitrogen fate. A central theme is the development of strategies to mitigate nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions by understanding the functional diversity of microbial communities, especially those harboring distinct forms of the nosZ gene. The lab also explores microbial metal homeostasis, including copper acquisition in methanotrophs through novel metal-chelating molecules like methanobactin.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
Denitrification and respiratory ammonification are two competing, energy-conserving NO3(-)/NO2(-) reduction pathways that have major biogeochemical consequences for N retention, plant growth and climate. Batch and continuous culture experiments using Shewanella loihica strain PV-4, a bacterium possessing both the denitrification and respiratory ammonification pathways, revealed factors that determine NO3(-)/NO2(-) fate. Denitrification dominated at low carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratios (that is, e
Anthropogenic activities, in particular fertilizer application for agricultural production, increase N2O emissions to the atmosphere. N2O is a strong greenhouse gas with ozone destruction potential, and there is concern that nitrogen may become the major driver of climate change. Microbial N2O reductase (NosZ) catalyzes N2O reduction to environmentally benign dinitrogen gas and represents the major N2O sink process. The observation that bacterial groups with clade I nosZ versus those with clade
Microbial reductive pathways of nitrogen (N) oxides are highly relevant to net emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) from agroecosystems. Several biotic and abiotic N-oxide reductive pathways influence the N budget and net GHG production in soil. This review summarizes the recent findings of N-oxide reduction pathways and their implications to GHG emissions in agroecosystems and proposes several mitigation strategies. Denitrification is the primary N-oxide reductive pathway that results in direct
Shewanella loihica strain PV-4 harbors both a functional denitrification (NO3 (-)→N2) and a respiratory ammonification (NO3 (-)→NH4 (+)) pathway. Batch and chemostat experiments revealed that NO2 (-) affects pathway selection and the formation of reduced products. Strain PV-4 cells grown with NO2 (-) as the sole electron acceptor produced exclusively NH4 (+). With NO3 (-) as the electron acceptor, denitrification predominated and N2O accounted for ∼90% of reduced products in the presence of acet
Methanotrophs, bacteria that utilize methane as their sole carbon and energy source, are known to have high requirements for copper. These bacteria have recently been found to synthesize a copper-chelating agent, or chalkophore, termed methanobactin. To aid in screening methanobactin production by methanotrophs, a plate assay developed from the chrome azurol S (CAS) assay for siderophore production, was modified. In the typical CAS assay, a colour change from blue to orange in iron-CAS plates is
Lactate but not acetate oxidation was reported to support electron acceptor reduction by Shewanella spp. under anoxic conditions. We demonstrate that the denitrifiers Shewanella loihica strain PV-4 and Shewanella denitrificans OS217 utilize acetate as an electron donor for denitrification but not for fumarate or ferric iron reduction.
Proteobacterial methanotrophs—groups of microorganisms that utilize methane as a source of energy and carbon—have been known to utilize unique mechanisms to scavenge copper, namely, utilization of methanobactin, a polypeptide that binds copper with high affinity and specificity. Previously the possibility that copper sequestration by methanotrophs may lead to alteration of cuproenzyme-mediated reactions in denitrifiers and consequently increase emission of potent greenhouse gas N 2 O has been su
Salinity and pH have direct and indirect impacts on the growth and metabolic activities of microorganisms. In this study, the effects of salt and alkaline stresses on the kinetic balance between nitrous oxide (N<sub>2</sub>O) production and consumption in the denitrification pathway of <i>Dechloromonas aromatica</i> strain RCB were examined. N<sub>2</sub>O accumulated transiently only in insignificant amounts at low salinity (≤0.5% NaCl) and circumneutral pH (7.0 and 7.5). As compared to these c
pH has been recognized as one of the key environmental parameters with significant impacts on the nitrogen cycle in the environment. In this study, the effects of pH on NO<sub>3</sub><sup>-</sup>/NO<sub>2</sub><sup>-</sup> fate and N<sub>2</sub>O emission were examined with <i>Shewanella loihica</i> strain PV-4, an organism with complete denitrification and respiratory ammonification pathways. Strain PV-4 was incubated at varying pH with lactate as the electron donor and NO<sub>3</sub><sup>-</su
The particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO) in Methylocystis strain SB2 was found to be constitutively expressed in the absence of methane when the strain was grown on either acetate or ethanol. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and reverse transcription-PCR showed that the expression of pmoA decreased by one to two orders of magnitude when grown on acetate as compared with growth of strain SB2 on methane. The capability of strain SB2 to degrade a mixture of chlorinated eth
As a preliminary investigation for the development of microbial-enhanced oil recovery strategies for high-temperature oil reservoirs (~70 to 90°C), we have investigated the indigenous microbial community compositions of produced waters from five different high-temperature oil reservoirs near Segno, Texas, U.S. (~80 to 85°C) and Crossfield, Alberta, Canada (~75°C). The DNA extracted from these low-biomass-produced water samples were analysed with MiSeq amplicon sequencing of partial 16S rRNA gene
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