CAREER: Quantifying the flux and isotope effects associated with sulfur-bearing intermediate species within dissimilatory sulfate reduction

地球历史的故事被锁在海洋沉积物中，硫的稳定同位素提供了大部分信息和时间线。尽管如此，是什么控制着这些同位素的行为还不完全清楚。这个职业奖的目标是系统地评估硫同位素在不同可溶性硫化合物上生长时是如何分馏的。就像人类呼吸氧气一样，这些生物可以在硫酸盐、亚硫酸盐、硫代硫酸盐和三硫酸盐上生长；这些是目标底物。因此，这项工作将建立一个框架，使特定的部分将与特定的代谢过程联系起来。从本质上讲，这是一个“指纹识别”过程。这项研究的核心是基于团队的STEM模型，当地高中生将与来自新英格兰一套大学的本科生密切合作，进行上述所有实验工作。这将使年轻科学家走上设计研究问题、进行实验室实验、处理数据和使用特定仪器的道路，并最终将这些结果与已发表的文献联系起来。

The story of Earth's history is locked within marine sediments, with the stable isotopes of sulfur providing much of this information and timeline. Despite this utility, what controls the behavior of these isotopes is incompletely understood. The goal of this CAREER award is to systematically evaluate how sulfur isotopes are fractionated when growing on different soluble sulfur compounds. In the same fashion that humans breathe oxygen, these organisms can grow on sulfate, sulfite, thiosulfate and trithionate; these are the targeted substrates. This work will thus develop a framework whereby specific fractionations will be linked to particular metabolic processes. In essence, this is a 'fingerprinting' process. At the core of this research is the team-based STEM model where local high school students will work closely with undergraduates from a suite of colleges in New England to conduct all the experimental work outlined above. This will bring young scientists along on the path of designing research questions, performing lab-based experiments, processing data and working with particular instruments, and finally relating these results to the published literature.