Published:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018
Published in:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115 (2018) 24
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1073/pnas.1722325115
ISSN:
0027-8424;
1091-6490
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
Significance To understand the roles that microorganisms play in diverse environments such as the open ocean or the human intestinal tract, we need an understanding of their metabolism and physiology. A variety of methods such as metagenomics and metaproteomics exist to assess the metabolism of environmental microorganisms based on gene content and gene expression. These methods often only provide indirect evidence for which substrates are used by a microorganism in a community. The direct protein stable isotope fingerprint (SIF) method that we developed allows linking microbial species in communities to the environmental carbon sources they consume by determining their stable carbon isotope signature. Direct protein-SIF also allows assessing which carbon fixation pathway is used by autotrophic microorganisms that directly assimilate CO 2 .