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

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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.