Collaborative Research: Tracking chemical, isotopic, and molecular signatures of tightly coupled sulfur cycling in phototrophic and chemosynthetic microbial ecosystems

微生物的代谢活动主导了地质时期地球的地球化学演化。 科学家们面临的一个试图理解全球生物地球化学的基本问题是：微生物群落组成（谁在那里？）代谢活动（它们在做什么？），和周围环境条件（例如，pH值、硫酸盐水平）（它们是如何受到影响的？）。硫循环，特别是硫酸盐还原和硫化物氧化之间的耦合，是当今许多不同微生物生态系统中驱动碳矿化的主要地球化学途径之一。从古代岩石中发现的同位素和矿物学证据表明，生物硫酸盐还原在早期地球上也发挥了重要作用。 为了更好地了解这一全球重要的过程和相应的生物特征的活性硫循环微生物，我们提出了一个多学科，高分辨率的地球化学和分子生物学研究密切耦合的微生物硫循环在三个代表性的微生物生态系统。这些包括3-4个成员的协同无氧光养财团，适度多样的化学合成硫氧化垫，和高度复杂的底栖产氧光合微生物垫。这些系统在生物复杂性和主要硫循环途径方面不同，这些系统共同提供了关于光依赖性和非依赖性硫代谢的基本信息。 我们的工作结合分析在高空间（？使用二次离子质谱（西姆斯）和FISH-nanoSIMS，微伏安硫物质测量和CARD-FISH分子成像的硫和碳同位素数据的100 μ m尺度）分辨率，以研究微生物空间组织，代谢活动和通过耦合硫循环群落建立地球化学梯度之间的联系。总之，来自这种结合实验室和现场研究的数据将开发一种新的工具集，可用于在微生物主导的沉积环境中以前所未有的规模研究紧密耦合的硫循环。 该项目将向科学家们介绍过去和现在环境中硫的基本化学和生物学。 这一点很重要，因为硫不仅在控制我们如何看待地球上生命进化的过程中发挥着关键作用，而且还控制着作为金属资源来源的矿床、石油和天然气的形成及其经济恢复、影响作物产量和水资源质量的土壤养分供应以及地下和地表沃茨中许多污染物的运输。 此外，该项目将有助于培养具有科学和技术知识的下一代科学家，以便在高科技和科学工业，研究和教育领域工作。

The metabolic activity of microorganisms dominates the biogeochemical evolution of the Earth over geologic time. One of the fundamental questions facing scientists seeking to understand global biogeochemistry is: What is the relationship between microbial community composition (who¡¦s there?), metabolic activity (what are they doing?), and ambient environmental conditions (e.g., pH, sulfate levels) (how are they impacted?). Sulfur cycling, particularly the coupling between sulfate reduction and sulfide oxidation, is one of the dominant geochemical pathways driving carbon mineralization within many diverse microbial ecosystems today. Isotopic and mineralogical evidence recovered from ancient rocks suggest biological sulfate reduction played an important role on early Earth as well. In attempt to better understand this globally important process and the corresponding biosignatures of active sulfur cycling microorganisms, we are proposing a multi-disciplinary, high-resolution geochemical and molecular biological investigation of closely coupled microbial sulfur cycling in three representative microbial ecosystems. These include a 3-4 member synergistic anoxygenic phototrophic consortium, moderately diverse chemosynthetic sulfur-oxidizing mats, and highly complex benthic oxygenic photosynthetic microbial mats. These systems differ in terms of biological complexity and in the major sulfur cycling pathways, that collectively will provide fundamental information regarding light-dependent and -independent sulfur metabolisms. Our work combines analyses at high spatial (?Ým-scale) resolution of sulfur and carbon isotopic data using secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and FISH-nanoSIMS, microvoltammetic sulfur species measurements, and CARD-FISH molecular imaging to investigate the linkage among microbial spatial organization, metabolic activity, and establishment of geochemical gradients by coupled sulfur cycling communities. Together, the data from this combined laboratory and field study will develop a new toolset that can be used to study tightly coupled sulfur cycling on an unprecedented scale within microbially dominated sedimentary environments. This project will inform scientists about the fundamental chemistry and biology governing sulfur in the environment, past and present. This is important because sulfur plays a critical role in processes controlling not only how we view the evolution of life on this planet, but also about ore deposits as sources of metal resources, oil and gas formation and their economic recovery, soil nutrient availability affecting crop yields and the quality of water resources, and the transport of many contaminants in ground and surface waters. Additionally this project will help train the next generation of scientists with the scientific and technical knowledge to work in high tech and scientific industry, research, and education fields.