By incubating soil with position-specific 13C-labeled glucose and determining the isotope distribution in the pyruvate that is produced, researchers will distinguish between two forms of glycolysis that may occur in intact microbial communities. Additionally, they will sequence DNA and RNA from soils and use that information to improve metabolic models. Improved understanding of microbial energy production and biosynthesis is essential to improving understanding of the dynamic behavior of soil ecosystems; an expressed goal of the DOE BER.
Proposer: Paul Dijkstra, Northern Arizona University
Proposal: Partitioning flux between Entner-Douderoff and Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas glycolysis in soil communities