Radiotracer and Inhibitor Studies of Amino Acid Cycling in Anoxic Marine Sediments

该项目的目标是进一步表征 利用溶解的游离氨基酸的生物化学方法 在缺氧的海洋沉积物中。 这项工作是一个更新的 先前 资助和一系列利用14 C- 标记的氨基酸和特定微生物的抑制剂 过程，侧重于硫酸盐之间的关系 还原和发酵反应消耗氨基酸。 这项工作的一个主要重点将是量化具体的 氨基酸代谢产生的中间产物， 缺氧海洋沉积物（例如，乙酸盐与丙酸盐， 与简单的总挥发性脂肪酸相反）。 对于比较 实验将使用沉积物进行 从几个地方收集的。 谷氨酸的研究进展 这些沉积物中的酸和丙氨酸的利用将是 扩展到包括涉及甘氨酸和 赖氨酸 选择这些氨基酸进行研究是因为 它们是占优势的氨基酸。 本研究结果 有可能增加我们对控制的了解， 对缺氧海洋沉积物中氨基酸双成作用的影响。

The goal of this project is to further characterize the biogeochemical processes utilizing dissolved free amino acids in anoxic marine sediments. This work is a renewal of a previous grant and series of experiments utilizing 14C- labelled amino acids and inhibitors of specific microbial processes, focussing on the relationship between sulfate reduction and fermentation reactions in consuming amino acids. A major emphasis of this work will be to quantify the specific intermediates produced from the metabolism of amino acids in anoxic marine sediments (e.g., acetate vs. propionate as opposed to simply total volatile fatty acids). For comparative purposes experiments will be carried out using sediment collected from several locations. Previous studies of glutamic acid and alanine utilization in these sediments will be expanded to include analogous studies involving glycine and lysine. These amino acids have been chosen for study because they are the dominant amino acids. The results of this study have the potential of increasing our knowledge of the controls on amino acid digenesis in anoxic marine sediments.