EAPSI:Interactive Behavior of Methane-Consuming Microbes in Marine Sediments and their Resilience to Increased Methane Levels

强效温室气体甲烷造成了大约20%的人为变暖。海洋沉积物每年产生数万兆吨的甲烷，但沉积物中的微生物在这些甲烷被释放到海洋或大气之前就消耗了大部分。这些微生物由细菌群和古细菌组成，它们共存于甲烷与硫酸盐混合的沉积物层中。一些研究集中在描述这种微生物伙伴关系的代谢特征和测量甲烷消耗率，但细胞相互发现、分散和对环境变化（如海底储量释放的甲烷增加）做出反应的机制尚未被描述。量化甲烷浓度、细胞活性和细胞密度之间的关系将改进碳循环模型，使甲烷释放到海洋的预测更加准确，并促进对全球碳循环主要过程的理解。此外，确定两种细胞类型之间相互作用的细胞途径和成分将为古细菌共生模型提供基本的见解。这项研究将由dr。王凤平和何颖来自中国上海交通大学。王博士使用类似的技术富集了这些细胞，并获得了它们的基因组，以预测它们的营养循环过程。S的生物信息学专业知识将有助于发现新的细胞-细胞相互作用。甲烷营养古菌和硫酸盐还原菌对甲烷的厌氧氧化（AOM）消耗了海洋地下产生的60-90%的甲烷，使其成为一个重要的生物地球化学过程。在静态生物反应器中对海洋沉积物样品进行长期高压培养已被用于产生生物量和研究细胞生长。不同甲烷浓度下的孵育结合荧光显微镜、比较宏基因组学和元转录组学将用于评估这些微生物群落的组成、活性和行为的变化。厌氧甲烷营养菌（ANME-2）的基因组草图也将被检查趋化性和细胞-细胞信号通路。该奖学金由美国国家科学基金会EAPSI与中国科技部合作资助，支持一名美国研究生的研究。

The potent greenhouse gas methane is responsible for about 20% of anthropogenic warming. (Tens of) megatons of methane are produced annually in marine sediments, but microbes in the sediments consume most of this methane before it is released into the ocean or atmosphere. These microbes consist of clusters of bacteria and archaea coexisting in layers of sediment where methane mixes with sulfate. Several studies have focused on characterizing the metabolism of this microbial partnership and measuring methane consumption rates, but the mechanisms by which the cells find each other, disperse, and respond to environmental changes, such as increases in methane released from subseafloor reserves, have not been characterized. Quantifying the relationships between methane concentration, cell activity, and cell density will improve carbon cycling models, allow a more accurate prediction of methane release into the ocean, and advance the understanding of a major process in the global carbon cycle. Also, identifying cellular pathways and components involved in the interactions between the two cell types will offer fundamental insight into a model archaeal-bacterial symbiosis. This research will be conducted with Drs. Fengping Wang and Ying He at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. Dr. Wang has enriched these cells using similar techniques and obtained their genomes to predict their nutrient cycling processes, and Dr. He?s bioinformatics expertise will help uncover new cell-cell interactions.The anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) by methanotrophic archaea of the ANME clades and sulfate-reducing bacteria consumes 60-90% of the methane produced in the marine subsurface, making it a crucial biogeochemical process. Long-term, high-pressure incubations of marine sediment samples in static bioreactors have been used to generate biomass and study cell growth. Incubations under different methane concentrations combined with fluorescence microscopy and comparative metagenomics and metatranscriptomics will be used to assess shifts in the composition, activity, and behavior of these microbial communities. A draft genome of an anaerobic methanotroph (ANME-2) will also be examined for chemotaxis and cell-cell signaling pathways. This NSF EAPSI research fellowship supports the research of a U.S. graduate student and is funded in collaboration with the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.