Expanding the frontiers of microbial diversity and function

微生物群落控制着碳和营养物质的地球化学循环，影响土壤和水生环境的肥力，维持人体的健康功能，在食品工业中发挥重要作用，并在生物技术中提供无数应用。微生物对人类生活和全球气候的深远影响强调了研究环境中微生物的地理学，探索与未培养微生物生命相关的大量基因资源，以及扩大我们对地球上大多数微生物物种的认识的价值：那些相对丰度较低的微生物。尽管技术限制阻碍了微生物生态学家量化微生物多样性和充分表征微生物群落的能力，但情况已不再如此。我的研究计划利用下一代测序和计算生物学的进展，探索陆地和水生环境中的微生物群落学。在这样做的过程中，我们瞄准并回收新的微生物物种，这将扩大我们对生命之树的了解，并使我们能够挖掘基因组，以实现科学突破和工业效益。我的研究计划的长期目标是确定影响微生物群落组成和多样性的因素，将特定的微生物群体与环境参数联系起来，发现陆地和水生环境中低丰度的新型微生物，并调查参与碳和氮生产和衰减的关键微生物。我的研究计划将继续提供深入了解土壤和淡水微生物生态学的原则，产生预测数据集，这将指导新的生物和酶的研究和工业价值的发现多年来。我具体的短期目标包括：1）表征微生物地理学和罕见的慈善研究保护区（剑桥，安大略）的罕见生物圈，2）生成一个全面的微生物地图的格兰德河流域，和3）探索氨氧化古菌（AOA;我们的模型罕见生物圈成员）的代谢和生态意义在工程淡水环境。该提案包括一项计划，用于对高度新颖的AOA进行基因组和代谢表征，我们在过去两年中已将AOA富集至接近纯度：Escheridatus Nitrosofontus exaquare和Escheridatus Nitrosopura aquariensis。 ** 拟议的研究计划将共同开发群落结构的定量模型，并揭示尚未发现的稀有微生物。确定微生物多样性的模式，使土壤和水管理实践的强有力的预测方法，并有助于重点培养和宏基因组学为基础的发现生物的相关性，为地球化学循环和潜在的工业应用。

Microbial communities govern biogeochemical cycling of carbon and nutrients, impact the fertility of soils and aquatic environments, maintain the healthy function of human bodies, play an important role in the food industry, and offer countless applications in biotechnology. The profound influence of microorganisms on human life and the global climate underlines the value of studying the biogeography of microorganisms in the environment, exploring the vast resource of genes associated with uncultured microbial life, and expanding our knowledge of most microbial species on earth: those present at low relative abundance. Although technical limitations have hindered the ability of microbial ecologists to quantify microbial diversity and adequately characterize microbial communities, this is no longer the case. My research program leverages advances in next-generation sequencing and computational biology to explore microbial biogeography in terrestrial and aquatic environments. In doing so, we target and recover novel microbial species that will expand our knowledge of the tree of life and enable us to mine genomes for scientific breakthroughs and industrial benefit.**The long-term goals of my research program are to identify factors that influence microbial community composition and diversity, link specific microbial groups to environmental parameters, discover novel microorganisms present at low abundance in terrestrial and aquatic environments, and investigate key microorganisms involved in the production and attenuation of carbon and nitrogen. My research program will continue to offer insight into the principles of soil and freshwater microbial ecology, producing predictive datasets that will guide the discovery of new organisms and enzymes of value to research and industry for many years to come.*My specific short-term objectives include: 1) Characterise microbial biogeography and the rare biosphere of the rare Charitable Research Reserve (Cambridge, Ontario), 2) Generate a comprehensive microbial map of the Grand River watershed, and 3) Explore the metabolism and ecological significance of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA; our model rare biosphere members) within engineered freshwater environments. This proposal includes a plan for genomic and metabolic characterization of highly novel AOA that we have enriched to near purity over the past two years: Candidatus Nitrosofontus exaquare and Candidatus Nitrosopura aquariensis. **Together, the proposed research program will develop quantitative models of community structure and reveal rare microorganisms that have not yet been discovered. Identifying patterns governing microbial diversity enables strong predictive approaches for soil and water management practices and assists in focused cultivation- and metagenomics-based discovery of organisms of relevance for both biogeochemical cycling and potential industrial applications.