Projects

The proteome and metabolome of OSER, cellular factories promoting high level terpene synthesis in filamentous fungi.

Lead Institution

United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service Cereal Disease Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Harold Kistler

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Terpene compounds are a promising source of renewable biofuels that have many favorable characteristics such as high energy content and compatibility with existing energy-use technologies. While…

The role of phyllosilicate minerals in mediating the temperature sensitivity of enzymatic activity in soil organic matter transformations

Lead Institution

Oregon State University

Principal Investigator

Markus Kleber

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The underlying idea of this proposal is the assumption that temperature sensitivity in multiple component systems can be expressed by a non-linear combination of two component systems. Our main…

Proteomic analysis of formaldehyde toxicity and engineered formaldehyde utilization in Methylobacterium extorquens

Lead Institution

University of Idaho

Principal Investigator

Christopher Marx

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Methylotrophy involves the production of formaldehyde, a highly toxic metabolite, as an intermediate. It is critical to understand how cells sense and respond to formaldehyde levels, as well as the…

Aerosol properties and processes in remote marine environment

Lead Institution

Washington University in St. Louis

Principal Investigator

Jian Wang

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

With their extensive coverage, marine low clouds greatly impact Earth's climate. The response of marine low clouds to changes in atmospheric aerosols remains a major source of uncertainty in…

The effect of trace element content on the rate of biotic and abiotic pyrite oxidation

Lead Institution

University of California, Riverside

Principal Investigator

Timothy Lyons

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The oxidation of pyrite is a common source of toxic trace elements and acid generation in many contaminated systems. A key component in understanding the potential threat to ecosystems and possible…

Key Roles of Relativity in Hg Biogeochemical Transformations

Lead Institution

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Jerry Parks

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Mercury (Hg) is a toxic element that is interconverted among various chemical forms and transported throughout the environment through both biotic and abiotic processes. Mercury can be methylated by…

Influence of rhizosphere processes on biogeochemical cycles governing metal contaminant mobility in floodplains

Lead Institution

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

Principal Investigator

Kristin Boye

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Floodplains are important repositories for metals, regulating their transport to surface and groundwater. The heterogeneous lithology and seasonal wet-dry cycling associated with alluvial deposits,…

Oxidation of lead sulfide surfaces in the presence of phosphate: nanoparticle formation.

Lead Institution

Georgia Institute of Technology

Principal Investigator

Andrew Stack

Project type

Exploratory Research

The understanding of galena (PbS) oxidation in the presence of phosphate containing solutions is important because lead contaminated soils and mine wastes are often treated with phosphate as a…

TEM and SEM investigation of non-pathogenic bacterial cultures.

Lead Institution

Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Alice Dohnalkova

Project type

Exploratory Research

Trasmission and scanning electron microscopy is a key element in investigations of the morphology and reduction products that occur during exposure of bacteria to various experimental environments…

Variable temperature XRD studies of Ge/SiO2/Si system

Lead Institution

Motorola

Principal Investigator

Yong Liang

Project type

Exploratory Research

This user proposal focuses on using the variable temperature X-ray diffraction capability in EMSL to investigate temperature dependent lattice parameters of a semiconductor system. Specifically, we…

Investigating the carbon cycling implications of changing microbial leaf litter decomposition across a permafrost thaw gradient.

Lead Institution

University of Arizona

Principal Investigator

Scott Saleska

Project type

FICUS Research

Thawing arctic permafrost (which contains 30-50% of global soil carbon) is expected to drive substantial alterations to carbon (C) cycling that will accelerate climate change. As permafrost thaws,…

Detecting Seismically-Sustained Deep Subsurface CH4-cycling Chemolithoautotrophic Microbial Communities Using Multi-Omic Analyses and NanoSIMS

Lead Institution

Princeton University

Principal Investigator

Tullis Onstott

Project type

FICUS Research

The specific objective of the proposed JGI/EMSL project is to document the microbial ecosystem of an active fault zone at 3.5 to 3.6 kilometers depth in South Africa. More specifically, the goal is…

Characterizing the ecophysiologies of uncultured syntrophic associations driving anaerobic methane oxidation: applications of targeted meta'omics and multi-modal analytical imaging of diverse archaeal-bacterial consortia

Lead Institution

California Institute of Technology

Principal Investigator

Victoria Orphan

Project type

FICUS Research

The main objective of this work is to combine the molecular, elemental and cryo-electron imaging and metaproteomics available at EMSL with the single cell genomics pipeline at the JGI in a highly…

Observations of Scytonema-colonized and
non-colonized fiber cement roofing shingles.

Lead Institution

Lab/Cor, Inc.

Principal Investigator

Barbara Reine

Project type

Exploratory Research

Fiber cement roofing shingles colonized with Scytonema sp. and other cyanobacteria are failing. One mechanism proposed to explain the observed deterioration is the breakdown of the cementicious…

Systems Analysis of Trophic Transitions in Chromochloris zofingiensis, an Emerging Model Green Alga with Promising Biofuel Potential

Lead Institution

University of California, Berkeley

Principal Investigator

Krishna Niyogi

Project type

FICUS Research

As a core component of a sustainable bio-economy, microalgae have the potential to become a major source of biofuels and bioproducts without exacerbating environmental problems. These photosynthetic…

Biodiversity and ice-nucleating activity of soil and marine airborne microorganisms and relationship to source material

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Susannah Burrows

Project type

FICUS Research

Understanding the nature, sources, and geographic and seasonal distribution of atmospheric ice nucleating particles (INPs), i.e., particles that promote freezing of cloud droplets, is critical to…

Towards a molecular-level understanding of terrestrial organic matter transformations by microbes in a rapidly changing Arctic Ocean

Lead Institution

Concordia University

Principal Investigator

David Walsh

Project type

FICUS Research

The fate of terrestrial organic matter in coastal seas and open oceans is not well understood. This is especially true in the Arctic Ocean, which is one of the largest depositories of terrestrial…

Revealing the Molecular Interactions in Phototroph-Heterotroph Co-Cultures for Bioenergy Through Development of an In Silico Platform for Design and Discovery

Lead Institution

Johns Hopkins University

Principal Investigator

Michael Betenbaugh

Project type

FICUS Research

Lichens are nature's solar cells, harnessing energy from sunlight and converting it along with CO2 into biochemicals. They achieve this goal through a complex web of interactions between a…

Single particle analysis of smoke aerosols during the Summer 2002 Yosemite Aerosol Characterization Study

Lead Institution

Colorado State University

Principal Investigator

Jenny Hand

Project type

Exploratory Research

The role of smoke aerosols from biomass burning in visibility degradation is poorly understood because few studies exist that have fully characterized their physical, optical, chemical and…

From phenotype to genotype and back again: large scale functional characterization of microbial dark matter by combining activity-based cell sorting, isotope labeling, and genomic sequencing

Lead Institution

Montana State University

Principal Investigator

Roland Hatzenpichler

Project type

FICUS Research

Two long-standing problems in microbial ecology are: (1) identifying the factors driving metabolic activity of microbes in their natural environment and (2) determining the substrates that are…