MRI: Acquisition of Instrumentation for Investigations of Metal-Organic Marine Bioinorganic Chemistry

PIs申请资金用于购买耦合液相色谱/质谱仪器（LCMS），这将为他们提供在微生物生物地球化学，微量金属地球化学，金属组学和海洋蛋白质组学领域的独特研究能力。这种方法的力量在于能够确定环境中金属-有机、金属蛋白、有机金属和有机营养化合物的形态和结构，这在海洋科学中是独一无二的。该系统将提供分离有机化合物的能力，从海洋环境和培养样品中分离，并将该物质传递给电感耦合等离子体质谱计（ICP-MS）进行元素分析。ICP-MS检测器特别适合于金属和一些非金属（如铁、锌、钴、汞、磷、砷、硒、卤素）的测定。尽管微量金属有机配合物和有机营养物在调节海洋微生物群落的大小和组成方面起着关键作用，但人们对海洋中金属和营养物的有机结合形式知之甚少。最近的研究表明，有机物种可能与海洋温室气体产生有关，并且气候驱动的海水化学变化反馈影响有机物种的形成。同样，与大多数模式生物来自的陆地环境相比，海洋环境是在海洋独特的生物地球化学条件下进化的，因此在海洋环境中发现新型金属蛋白的潜力很大。更广泛的影响：该仪器将支持WHOI的各种项目、访问科学家和外部合作者。这些仪器将为加快海洋金属配合物的研究提供必要的分析能力，从而进一步了解生物地球化学循环的机理。世卫组织-麻省理工学院联合项目的研究生将接受培训，使用该仪器作为海洋生物无机化学课程的一部分，或作为pi实验室的学生。此外，参加WHOI少数民族暑期学生奖学金计划的本科生将有机会参与拟议的研究活动。这项研究的结果将增加我们对海洋生物地球化学循环的全面了解。

The PIs request funding to acquire coupled liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry instrumentation (LCMS) that will provide them with a unique research capability in the fields of microbial biogeochemistry, trace metal geochemistry, metallomics, and marine proteomics. The power of this approach lies in the ability to determine speciation and structure of metal-organic, metalloprotein, organometallic and organic nutrient compounds in the environment which will be unique in ocean sciences. The system will provide the capability to separate organic compounds, isolate from the marine environment and culture samples, and pass this material to the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) for elemental analysis. The ICP-MS detectors are particularly well suited for determination of metals and some non-metals (e.g., Fe, Zn, Co, Hg, P, As, Se, halogens). Very little is known about the organically bound forms of metals and nutrients in the ocean, even though trace metal organic complexes and organic nutrients play a critical role in regulating the size and composition of marine microbial communities. Recent studies suggest that organic species may be linked to marine greenhouse gas production, and that climate driven changes in seawater chemistry feedback to impact organic speciation. Similarly, there is great potential for discovery of novel metalloproteins in the marine environment, which evolved under the unique biogeochemical conditions of the oceans compared to terrestrial environments, where most model organisms are from.Broader Impacts: This instrumentation will support a wide variety of projects at WHOI, visiting scientists, and external collaborators. These instruments will provide necessary analytical power for expediting the study of metal complexes in the ocean which will further the mechanistic understanding of biogeochemical cycling. Graduate students in the WHOI-MIT Joint Program will be trained to use the instrumentation either as part of the Marine Bioinorganic Chemistry class or as students in one of the PIs' labs. In addition, undergraduate students participating in the WHOI Minority Summer Student Fellowship program will have the opportunity to participate in the proposed research activities. The results of this research will increase our overall understanding of biogeochemical cycling in the ocean.