Projects

Composition and adsorption mechanism of metabolites produced by roots of different hemp varieties grown in a synthetic soil habitat

Lead Institution

Utah State University

Principal Investigator

Idowu Atoloye

Project type

Exploratory Research

Understanding the interactions between plant organic molecules and soil minerals is critical in biogeochemical processes. The adsorptive behavior of metabolites on soil mineral surfaces can be…

Modeling microbial community metabolic interactions in hypersaline ecosystems

Lead Institution

Duke University

Principal Investigator

Amy Schmid

Project type

Exploratory Research

The proposed research will test the hypothesis that hypersaline microbial communities interact to maintain stability despite changes in salinity and nutrient availability. Hypersaline-adapted Archaea…

Stoichiometry changes to photosynthetic structures in algae in response to environmental stimuli and genetic engineering

Lead Institution

University of California, Berkeley

Principal Investigator

Sabeeha Merchant

Project type

Exploratory Research

Photosynthesis is essential for all life on Earth, with the photosynthetic electron transfer chain and the Calvin-Benson cycle being the key molecular machineries assimilating inorganic carbon with…

Elucidating the effects of root responses to moderate soil nutrient limitation on mineral bioweathering processes

Lead Institution

University of British Columbia

Principal Investigator

Jean-Thomas Cornelis

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The excessive use of mineral fertilizer has become a critical contributor to global environmental issues. To control the environmental impacts of agricultural expansion, we need a significant…

Cellular controls on carbon source-sink dynamics in deglaciated soils

Lead Institution

McGill University

Principal Investigator

Lyle Whyte

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

When glaciers in polar regions recede because of ongoing climate change, they expose large new areas of nutrient-poor soil. These “pioneer soils,” which have been trapped under the ice and devoid of…

Investigating the Effect of Negative Arm Protein Conformations on the Circadian Post-Transcriptional Regulation of Cellulases.

Lead Institution

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Principal Investigator

Jennifer Hurley

Project type

FICUS Research

Biofuel production using cellulases extracted from fungi has the potential to be a major resource to replace fossil fuels. Regulating the synthesis of these and other enzymes is crucial for the…

The thiol redox proteome dynamics in Arabidopsis thaliana in response to light

Lead Institution

Universidad de Sevilla

Principal Investigator

Francisco Javier Cejudo

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Plant performance relies on regulatory mechanisms that allow the rapid adaptation of their metabolism to light, the key stimulus for growth and development of photosynthetic organisms. Thus, dark…

Unraveling the biochemical and metabolic networks controlling bacterial cellulose biosynthesis

Lead Institution

University of Kentucky

Principal Investigator

Kendall Corbin

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Synthetic biology is a rapidly evolving field that uses novel engineering approaches to enhance the capabilities of organisms. Cellulose producing bacteria with commercial value, such as many in the…

Computational Mechanistic Studies of Methyl-coenzyme M Reductase Enzyme

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Bojana Ginovska

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Methane is the second most abundant greenhouse gas after CO2, which accounts for 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and it is by far the largest constituent of natural gas deposits. Methyl…

Identification of Individual Particle Chemical Composition, Morphology, and Ice Nucleation Properties in the Arctic

Lead Institution

University of Michigan

Principal Investigator

Kerri Pratt

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The proposed project will address critical gaps in our understanding of the Arctic aerosol chemical composition, mixing state, sources, and ice nucleation properties through chemical imaging and ice…

Mass-spectral 'fingerprinting' of technical and native lignin substrates for improved biological funneling and enzyme discovery

Lead Institution

University of British Columbia

Principal Investigator

Steven Hallam

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Lignin, composed of phenylpropanoid monomers connected by C-C and C-O-C (β-O-4 ether) bonds is the most energy dense polymer in lignocellulosic biomass and a potentially valuable source of aromatic…

Structural and functional dissection of a cell cycle chromatin switch in green algae

Lead Institution

Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Principal Investigator

James Umen

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The long-term goal of this project is to understand the dynamic genetic programming which underlies cell growth and proliferation in green algae. This project addresses a long-standing enigma of how…

Characterization of the Aerobiome during ARM Surface-Atmosphere Integrated Laboratory (SAIL) Campaign

Lead Institution

Brookhaven National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Maria Zawadowicz

Project type

FICUS Research

Atmospheric bioaerosols are bacteria, viruses, spores or pollen and their fragments suspended in ambient air, and they can have wide-reaching potential impacts on air quality, climate, and public…

Characterizing primary biological aerosol particles during TRACER

Lead Institution

University of Michigan

Principal Investigator

Allison Steiner

Project type

FICUS Research

Atmospheric organic aerosols represent a large fraction of the total aerosol in the atmosphere and can derive from primary sources emitted directly from natural or anthropogenic processes or be…

Understanding Product Selectivity of Monoterpene Synthases Using Atomistic Simulations

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Hoshin Kim

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Monoterpene synthases (MTSs) catalyze the biosynthesis of monoterpenes, which play a pivotal role in plant-plant communications as well as key ingredients for many industrial applications including…

Atomistic Simulations of the Discriminatory Power of Desaturase

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Marcel Baer

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

We propose to use EMSL supercomputing resources to gain a molecular level understanding of how substrate binding, electron, and proton delivery are controlled by the desaturase metalloenzyme…

Towards Aerosol-Ice Formation Closure – Chemical Imaging Investigation of Aerosol and Ice Nucleating Particles

Lead Institution

State University of New York at Stony Brook

Principal Investigator

Daniel Knopf

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Prediction of ice nucleating particle (INP) number concentrations from ambient aerosol particles represents an urgent and challenging issue when simulating cloud processes in climate models. A recent…

Deciphering plant-plant, plant-microbe, and plant-soil interactions driving biological invasion in a southwestern desert grassland

Lead Institution

University of Arizona

Principal Investigator

Malak Tfaily

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Plant invasion is a major component of global change, leading to environmental transformations that alter ecosystem services and associated biogeochemical cycles. The overarching goal of this project…

Deciphering the structure and function of the last unknown major plant organelle - Plasmodesma

Lead Institution

Washington State University

Principal Investigator

Michael Knoblauch

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Plant tissues exhibit a symplasmic organization; the individual protoplasts are connected to their neighbors via cytoplasmic bridges that extend through pores in the cell walls. These bridges may…

Molecular controls of microbial nitrogen use efficiency in agricultural soils

Lead Institution

United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service

Principal Investigator

Amisha Poret-Peterson

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Microbial nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) reflects the partitioning of organic N taken up between N incorporation into microbial biomass (growth) and N recycled to the environment as inorganic N …