EAGER: Leveraging advances in stable isotope probing to investigate phylogenetic organization in prokaryotic activity

EAGER：利用稳定同位素探测的进展来研究原核生物活性的系统发育组织

• 批准号: 1645596
• 负责人: Ember Morrissey
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: West Virginia University Research Corporation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-08-01 至 2018-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1645596&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Leveraging; advances; stable; isotope

It is estimated that there are more than one trillion species of microorganisms Earth, but only a small fraction of them have been isolated, grown in the laboratory and fully characterized. This project will support the development of a novel approach that links the identification of the vast diversity of microorganisms with their role in consuming different carbon sources in soil without the need to isolate and cultivate them in the laboratory. It will take advantage of the latest developments in DNA sequencing and environmental chemistry. Specifically, this research will also test whether related microorganisms decompose the same forms of carbon in soil, resulting a major advance in microbial evolution and ecology. This work will also result in an important new tool to characterize microbial biodiversity in order to better predict the cycling of carbon in soil. This Early-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) project will investigate the role of evolutionary history in determining microbial function via the study of an integral ecosystem process: carbon decomposition. A novel method that quantitatively measures stable isotope incorporation into the nucleic acids of individual microbial "species" (or phylotypes) will be used to determine which microorganisms are decomposing and assimilating specific constituents of the soil carbon pool. The soil carbon compounds to be considered include important representatives from plants and microbes (e.g. cellulose, proteins) and range from quickly mineralized (i.e. glucose and amino acids) to recalcitrant (i.e. cellulose) carbon sources. Comparing the activity and phylogeny of microorganisms will allow a determination of whether closely related organisms tend to consume the same carbon sources. To determine if the functional roles of microbial phylotypes and phylogenetic groups are consistent under different environmental conditions, soils with differing soil organic carbon characteristics will be studied. As soil organic carbon quantity and chemistry influences the composition and activity of microbial communities, this comparison will provide insight into which organisms and activities are consistent under different environmental conditions. If evolutionary history is found to be a determinant of microbial function, phylogeny/function relationships will be characterized in order to understand how the composition of microbial communities affects their functioning within ecosystems. In addition to charting new ground in environmental microbiology, this project will support two undergraduate student researchers and an early-career investigator.

据估计，地球上有超过1万亿种微生物，但只有一小部分被分离出来，在实验室中培养并充分表征。该项目将支持开发一种新的方法，将鉴定广泛的微生物多样性与它们在消耗土壤中不同碳源方面的作用联系起来，而不需要在实验室中分离和培养它们。它将利用DNA测序和环境化学的最新发展。具体地说，这项研究还将测试相关微生物是否会分解土壤中相同形式的碳，从而在微生物进化和生态学方面取得重大进展。这项工作还将产生一个重要的新工具来表征微生物生物多样性，以便更好地预测土壤中碳的循环。这个早期概念探索性研究奖助金(AGER)项目将通过研究一个完整的生态系统过程：碳分解来研究进化史在确定微生物功能方面的作用。一种新的方法将被用来确定哪些微生物正在分解和同化土壤碳库的特定成分，该方法可以定量地测量单个微生物“物种”(或类群类型)的核酸中的稳定同位素含量。要考虑的土壤碳化合物包括来自植物和微生物(如纤维素、蛋白质)的重要代表，范围从快速矿化(即葡萄糖和氨基酸)到顽固(即纤维素)碳源。通过比较微生物的活动和系统发育，可以确定密切相关的生物是否倾向于消耗相同的碳源。为了确定微生物系统类型和系统发育类群在不同环境条件下的功能作用是否一致，将对具有不同土壤有机碳特征的土壤进行研究。由于土壤有机碳量和化学成分影响微生物群落的组成和活性，这种比较将有助于了解哪些生物和活动在不同的环境条件下是一致的。如果发现进化史是微生物功能的决定因素，将对系统发育/功能关系进行表征，以便了解微生物群落的组成如何影响其在生态系统中的功能。除了绘制环境微生物学的新领域外，该项目还将支持两名本科生研究人员和一名职业生涯早期的研究人员。

项目成果

Bacterial carbon use plasticity, phylogenetic diversity and the priming of soil organic matter

• DOI: 10.1038/ismej.2017.43
• 发表时间: 2017-08-01
• 期刊: ISME JOURNAL
• 影响因子: 11
• 作者: Morrissey, Ember M.;Mau, Rebecca L.;Hungate, Bruce A.
• 通讯作者: Hungate, Bruce A.

Novel microbial community composition and carbon biogeochemistry emerge over time following saltwater intrusion in wetlands

• DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14486
• 发表时间: 2019-02-01
• 期刊: GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
• 影响因子: 11.6
• 作者: Dang, Chansotheary;Morrissey, Ember M.;Franklin, Rima B.
• 通讯作者: Franklin, Rima B.