Iron uptake by marine bacteria: regulation and function of weak and strong siderophores

结合和运输铁的有机分子被称为铁载体。由于铁是生物系统必需的微量元素，并且在开阔的海洋中以非常非常低的浓度存在，铁载体在为细胞功能捕获铁方面发挥着关键作用。众所周知，海洋细菌可以产生两种不同类型的铁载体，它们要么紧密结合铁，要么只能微弱地结合铁，从而产生不同的生态后果。这位研究人员将利用金属与生物相互作用的特殊职业来研究究竟是什么环境和生化条件（例如铁的可用性）控制细菌生产各种铁载体的未解决问题。研究结果将对关键的化学海洋学过程产生重要的新认识，并为该研究人员的突破性发现奠定了基础。这项研究的资助还将支持女性在科学领域的进步，为女性科学家提供最高质量的培训，并为她提供在普林斯顿等离子体物理实验室的“科学青年女性”会议上主持海洋学展台的机会。本研究将以哈维弧菌为模式生物，探讨围绕海洋细菌产生弱和强铁载体的各种问题。首先，研究将着眼于铁载体的生产是如何通过不同的铁可用性和群体感应（即与种群密度和/或某些信号分子相关的协调反应）来控制的。这还包括深入研究生命阶段和生物化学变化对生长的影响，因为它们与弱和强铁载体的协调使用有关。利用已建立的哈维氏芽孢杆菌基因操作方案，研究人员计划发现弱铁载体和强铁载体的不同组合如何最大限度地吸收铁。这项研究对化学海洋学领域的更广泛的生物地球化学影响，涉及海洋中许多必需微量营养素的微生物利用和细胞反应，将大大影响对元素分布的理解，超出对海洋中铁和铁载体循环的具体研究。

Organic molecules that bind and transport iron are called siderophores. Because iron is an essential trace element for biological systems and exists at very, very low concentrations in the open ocean, siderophores perform a critical role in capturing iron for cellular function. It is known that marine bacteria can produce two different types of siderophores that either tightly bind iron or only weakly do so, with different ecological consequences. This researcher will leverage an exceptional career on metal-organism interactions to examine the unsolved question of exactly what environmental and biochemical conditions (for example the availability of iron) control bacterial production of various siderophores. Results will generate significant new understanding of a critical chemical oceanographic process, and cap this researcher's groundbreaking discoveries that have built to this project. Funding for this research will also support the advancement of women in science by both providing the highest quality training of a female scientist and providing the opportunity for her to host an oceanography booth at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab's "Young Women in Science" conference.This study will use Vibrio harveyi as a model organism to investigate a variety of questions surrounding the marine bacterial production of weak and strong siderophores. To start, the investigation will look into how siderophore production is controlled by varying iron availability and quorum sensing (i.e. a coordinated response correlated to population density and/or certain signaling molecules). This also includes in-depth investigation of the impact of life phase and biochemical changes with growth as they relate to coordinated use of weak and strong siderophores. Using established protocols for genetic manipulation of V. harveyi, the researcher plans to discover how varying combinations of weak and strong siderophores maximize the uptake of iron. The broader biogeochemical implications of this study to the field of chemical oceanography, with regard to the microbial use of, and cellular responses to, many essential micronutrients in the ocean would be to significantly influence understanding of elemental distributions beyond the specific study of iron and siderophore cycling in the ocean.