Microbial Biology Research Starter Grant: Linking Dissolved Organic Matter Composition to Prokaryotic Community Structure

在水生环境中，细菌群落在循环许多必需营养物质（包括碳）中起着至关重要的作用。由于细菌群落是如此复杂，而且淡水中的碳源是多种多样的，用传统的方法来确定细菌物种在淡水溪流和湿地中碳的矿化、输出和储存中的离散作用是不可能的。新的基因组测序方法的出现，最近使得微生物群落多样性的广泛，培养独立的采样成为可能。在本研究中，研究者将使用454焦磷酸测序来表征细菌群落多样性，并确定不同微生物物种在不同类型有机物循环中的作用。结果数据将被分析，以确定细菌是否专门针对特定类型的碳，并测试有关参与物种特定代谢功能的假设。PI的研究地点已被选为20个由nsf赞助的国家生态观测网（NEON）核心地点之一，通过此收集的数据和PI的未来研究将为未来的NEON活动提供重要的基础。PI将她的一部分研究经费用于支持学生参与她的实验室研究；这些学生将有机会接触到微生物生物学的最新技术。

Bacterial communities play an essential role in cycling many essential nutrients, including carbon, in aquatic environments. Because bacterial communities are so complex, and because carbon sources in freshwater are diverse, identifying the discrete roles of bacterial species in the mineralization, export, and storage of carbon in freshwater streams and wetlands has been impossible using traditional methods. The advent of new genome sequencing methods has recently made extensive, culture-independent sampling of microbial community diversity available. In this study, the researcher will use 454 pyrosequencing to characterize bacterial community diversity and to identify the roles that diverse microbial species play in the cycling of different types of organic matter. The resulting data will be analyzed to determine if bacteria specialize on particular types of carbon and to test hypotheses on specific metabolic functions of participating species.The PI's study site has been chosen as one of 20 national, NSF-sponsored NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network) core sites, and the data collected through this and the PI's future research will provide a critical foundation for future NEON activities. The PI has targeted a portion of her research funding to support student participation in her laboratory research; these students will gain access to the most current techniques in microbial biology.