Community proteomics of oxic-anoxic cycling in the Great Salt Lake, Utah
EMSL Project ID
34934
Abstract
Extreme environments generally contain stable low-complexity microbial communities making them good targets for community proteomic studies. Often the caveat for low-complexity communities is the narrow view they provide on environmental fluctuation. We have found that the microbial communities inhabiting salt-saturated brines of the North Arm of the Great Salt Lake, Utah, are low in biodiversity, yet maintain surprisingly high functional diversity as they experience diurnal oxic-anoxic cycles. Most oxic-anoxic gradients are spatial and clearly delineate different populations of microorgansism along this interface. However, the North Arm microbial community goes through a temporal oxic-anoxic gradient, confining the response to this environmental fluctuation within the same community. We propose development of a mass tag peptide database for the community proteome of the North Arm as it cycles from oxic to anoxic conditions. This database will complement ongoing metagenomic efforts (with JGI) and development of a metabolic reconstruction microarray (with Affymetrix). Biogeochemical cycling is dependent on redox conditions; a thorough molecular examination of one microbial community that cycles through redox will provide valuable information on how organisms exchange energy and electron flux. Additionally, investigating community dynamics will help determine the interaction of cells with their environment ranging from individual strains to community-wide population shifts. This research is central to DOE missions in energy production, contaminant degradation and metal reduction and it contributes to basic understanding of community dynamics.
Project Details
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Start Date
2009-10-08
End Date
2012-09-30
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members
Related Publications
Parnell JJ, SJ Callister, G Rompato, CD Nicora, L Pasa-Tolic, A Williamson, and ME Pfrender. 2011. "Time-course analysis of the Shewanella amazonensis SB2B proteome in response to osmotic shock." Proteomics 1(25):, doi:10.1038/srep00025