Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 28, 2026
15:23
Determination of Microbial Extracellular Enzyme Activity in Waters, Soils, and Sediments using High Throughput Microplate Assays
Published on: October 1, 2013
40.5K
Targeted quantification of functional enzyme dynamics in environmental samples for microbially mediated
Minjing Li1, Yuqian Gao2, Wei-Jun Qian2
1School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, People's Republic of China.
Environmental Microbiology Reports
|June 16, 2017
Summary
Quantifying microbial enzymes in environmental samples is now possible using signature peptides and PRISM technology. This breakthrough allows for studying the link between enzyme activity and biogeochemical processes.
Area of Science:
- Environmental microbiology
- Biogeochemistry
- Proteomics
Background:
- Microbial enzymes are crucial for environmental biogeochemical processes.
- Directly quantifying enzymes in complex environmental samples is challenging due to microbial diversity, low biomass, and sample complexity.
- Previous methods lacked the sensitivity and specificity to link enzyme abundance to specific biogeochemical transformations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a method for quantifying specific microbial functional enzymes in environmental samples.
- To investigate the dynamic linkage between enzyme abundance and biogeochemical species transformation.
- To demonstrate the application of the developed method in a real-world environmental setting.
Main Methods:
- Identification of conserved signature peptides across diverse microorganisms for targeted enzymes using metagenome data.
- Adaptation and optimization of high-pressure, high-resolution separations with intelligent selection and multiplexing (PRISM) technology for ultrasensitive peptide quantification.
- Application of the PRISM-based method to quantify nitrate-reducing enzymes in hyporheic zone sediment.
Main Results:
- Successfully identified signature peptides for targeted microbial enzymes.
- Enhanced PRISM technology achieved high sensitivity and efficiency for peptide quantification in complex environmental matrices.
- Quantified dissimilatory and assimilatory nitrate-reducing enzyme abundance in hyporheic sediment.
- Demonstrated the feasibility of linking enzyme abundance to nitrate reduction dynamics.
Conclusions:
- The developed signature peptide-based PRISM approach enables sensitive and specific quantification of microbial functional enzymes.
- This method overcomes previous limitations in studying enzyme-biogeochemical process linkages.
- The approach provides a powerful tool for advancing our understanding of microbial roles in environmental processes.
