Organo-mineralization in microbial mats under extreme conditions: linking field, laboratory and metagenomics studies

这里提出的计划将使前所未有的，开创性的和跨学科的研究微生物垫中的微生物-矿物相互作用从宏观到分子水平。微生物垫是地球上最早的生物群落，有助于矿物的形成和有机物质的保存。这些垫内的代谢活动和胞外聚合物（EPS）上的成核过程诱导并影响矿物质形成（“有机矿化”）。以往对微生物与矿物质相互作用的观察并没有揭示微生物席中生物矿物质的形成机制。了解地球圈和生物圈之间的这种相互作用对环境研究至关重要。

The program here proposed will enable unprecedented, ground breaking and cross-disciplinary research on microbe-mineral interactions in microbial mats from the macroscopic to molecular levels. Microbial mats, the earth’s earliest biological communities, contribute to the formation of minerals and the preservation of organic matter. Metabolic activity within these mats, and nucleation processes on extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), induce and influence mineral formation (“organo-mineralization”). Previous observations of the interactions between microbes and minerals have not revealed the mechanisms of forming biogenic minerals in microbial mats. Understanding such interactions between the geo- and biosphere is crucial in environmental research.