This proposal seeks to study viruses and microbes in nearly unexplored extreme environments including hydrothermal vents, glacial sea ice, and modern and ancient sea brines. The team will develop catalogs of which viruses are there, and use these to explore their genomes to identify genes the viruses have ‘stolen’ to augment a key microbial metabolism…
Microbial Success in Legume-Rhizobia Mutualism
Recent advances have revealed the importance of microbes on plant and animal health. For plant productivity, no microbe-plant association is more important than that between rhizobia bacteria and legume plants. This symbiosis is the major natural contributor of nitrogen, a nutrient that limits plant growth in agricultural and natural systems. This work will identify genes…
Quantifying Cyanobacteria Interactions
Photosynthetic microbes play a major role in the Earth’s complex biogeochemical cycles. The vast populations of photoautotrophic cyanobacteria in the oceans, terrestrial and freshwater environments fix significant amounts of carbon and nitrogen. These phototrophic hosts are prey to viruses that release carbon and other nutrients, so the long term objective is to quantify dynamic interactions…
Iron- and Sulfur-Oxidizing Sediment Bacteria
Iron and sulfur are important elements to all life on Earth. Some groups of bacteria use iron and sulfur as energy sources and make organic carbon (sugars) from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. These bacteria, known as iron- and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria, are found in the sediments and waters of the ocean and on land. They…
Dynamic Behavior of Soil Ecosystems
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…
Metabolic Diversity Across the Great Lakes
The Laurentian Great Lakes hold 20 percent of Earth’s surface freshwater and provide inestimable ecosystem services, yet surprisingly little is known about the structure and activity of microbial communities in this ecosystem. This project seeks to characterize the metabolic diversity and activity of microbes across the Great Lakes, and to understand how these microbes control…
Gene Expression in Phlebiopsis gigantea
This project seeks to exploit the unique ability of the fungus Phlebiopsis gigantea to rapidly colonize freshly cut loblolly pine. Investigations will advance understanding of the early and exclusive deconstruction of coniferous wood by P. gigantea, provide a framework for functional analyses of hitherto unknown proteins, develop effective biocontrol strategies against economically important root rot…
Genus-Wide Genomics of Trichoderma
Trichoderma is a genus of fungi that has a broad impact on mankind. There are approximately 270 species of Trichoderma fungi that have varied interactions with other fungi, animals, plants, and efficiently degrade plant biomass material. One species in particular (T. reesei) is well-established for production of enzymes used in the biofuel and biorefinery industries….
A High Quality Genome for Agave tequilana
Agave tequilana uses crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) as a photosynthetic adaptation to water-limited environments, with great potential for sustainable production of biofuels due to high water-use efficiency (WUE), high biomass yield, low lignin content, and high cellulose and sugar contents. The goal of this research is to generate high-quality genome assembly and gene annotation for…
Daily Cycles of Microbial Decomposition
Marine and freshwater microbial communities and activities vary over the course of the day. In contrast, researchers know little about whether these same patterns exist on land. The team aims to profile the activity of surface soil microbes (those on dead leaf litter) of an arid ecosystem over the course of three days. The leaf…