En-Gen: A Functional Genomics Approach to Organic Sulfur Cycling in the Ocean

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The recent discovery of key genes that mediate competing pathways at a critical juncture in the marine sulfur cycle has allowed biogeochemists to make rapid advances in understanding where and when sulfur transformations occur in the ocean, and most importantly, what factors regulate them. This project describes an environmental functional genomics project that will rapidly increase our knowledge of the role that bacterioplankton play in dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) cycling in ocean surface waters, focusing particularly on biological controls of volatile sulfur exchange across the ocean/atmosphere boundary. The investigators have asked three critical hypotheses to explain the regulation of bacterial DMSP degradation: that involve investigations on the energy constraints of DMSP cycling, the role that DMSP concentration in the oceans plays, and the sulfur requirements for bacterial growth. These research areas serve as the focus for hypothesis-driven laboratory and field studies using functional genomics approaches that will track patterns in gene expression in relation to sulfur metabolism. The hypotheses will be tested with: 1) chemostat systems with a model marine bacterium Silicibacter pomeroyi; 2) microcosm experiments with Gulf of Mexico seawater; and 3) field studies at various sites in the Gulf of Mexico. Marine bacterioplankton play a key role in regulating the flux of DMSP-derived sulfur to the atmosphere, a process of great importance for global climate regulation and marine productivity. The investigators will also be involved in graduate and undergraduate student education, and two post-doctoral associates will be trained to address multidisciplinary challenges in environmental microbiology. High school biology students in Athens, GA will participate in marine microbial biology research that includes bacterial diversity and discovery studies in coastal Georgia, follow-up training in molecular tools and bioinformatics in their own classroom, and summer internships at the University of Georgia and Dauphin Island Sea Laboratory.