Microbial Observatories: Collaborative Research: A Cold Microbial Observatory in an Alaskan Boreal Forest Soil

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A collaborative grant has been awarded to Drs. Jo Handelsman at the University of Wisconsin, Roger Ruess at the University of Alaska, Jill Banfield at the University of California-Berkeley, and William Metcalf at the University of Illinois to describe the diversity and function of the microbial life in Alaskan soil in a Long Term Ecological Research site. Microbial diversity and mechanisms of phosphorous acquisition will be studied by culturing and culture-independent molecular methods to access a wide spectrum of organisms. The culture independent methods will include "metagenomics," an approach involving cloning the genes from organisms directly from the environment, without requiring them to grow in culture. Diversity will be assessed by methods that rely on the sequences of genes that act as molecular signatures for microbial species. Cultured organisms and metagenomic clones will be screened for the ability (1) to grow on reduced forms of phosphorous as the sole P source and (2) to solubilize the dominant mineral forms of P in the forest soil that are identified by our mineralogical characterization. Soil contains a rich variety of uncultured microorganisms that outnumber the cultured organisms by a factor of 100 or 1000. The soils of interior Alaska represent a large and diverse habitat of the boreal forest whose micoorganisms, both cultured and uncultured, have been largely ignored. Recent studies of other cold environments have revealed novel and diverse microbial life, suggesting that the soils of Alaska will be a productive hunting ground for new microorganisms and new microbial functions. Little is known about phosphorous acquisition, which is essential to ecosystem function. The Microbial Observatory will contribute to our knowledge of the microbiology of cold soils, increase the diversity of cultured microorganisms, and potentially identify new microbial functions for coping with phosphorous limitation. The microorganisms cultured in this study and the metagenomic clones may also provide a new resource for biotechnology research for enzyme, drug, and agrichemical discovery.