Genetic Analysis of Methylotrophic Methanogenesis

该项目的长期目标是扩大我们对甲烷藻物种的生理、代谢和进化适应的认识。这些研究的主要重点将是鉴定和表征直接和间接影响甲醇作为生长底物利用的基因。这些研究有望揭示甲基营养化产甲烷途径的新方面，并为将产甲烷整合到生物体的整体代谢中提供见解。此外，对古细菌转录控制的更清晰理解应该源于对高度调控的甲基化营养基因的研究。最后，在这些研究的过程中，可能会发展出新的具有广泛应用价值的遗传方法。拟议的实验将主要利用最近开发的甲烷藻物种遗传分析方法；然而，生理、生化和分子方法将补充遗传方法。这一策略预计将产生既新颖又补充以往研究结果的数据。这些研究将广泛适用于甲烷生成领域，这对许多与人类有关的问题都很重要，包括从生物材料生产替代燃料、废物处理和全球变暖。该项目将为两名研究生和几名本科生提供培训机会。

The long-term goal of the project is to expand our knowledge regarding the physiology, metabolism and evolutionary adaptation of Methanosarcina species. The primary emphasis of these studies will be the identification and characterization of genes that directly and indirectly effect the utilization of methanol as a growth substrate. These studies are expected to reveal novel aspects of the methylotrophic methanogenic pathway, and lend insight into the integration of methanogenesis into the global metabolism of the organism. Moreover, a clearer understanding of archaeal transcriptional control should result from examination of the highly regulated methylotrophic genes. Lastly, new genetic methods, which may be widely applicable, will be developed during the course of these studies. The proposed experiments will primarily utilize recently developed methods for genetic analysis of Methanosarcina species; however, physiological, biochemical and molecular approaches will complement the genetic approach. This strategy is expected to generate data that are both novel and complementary to the results of preceding studies. These studies will be broadly applicable to the field of methanogenesis, which is important to a number of human-related problems including the production of alternative fuels from biological materials, waste treatment, and global warming. This project will provide training opportunities for two graduate students and several undergraduate students.