Harnessing Omic Approaches to Understand How Carbon, Nitrogen, and Sulfur Cycling are Partitioned in Deep Sea and Sediment Microbial Communities.

Abstract

Microorganisms have mediated the cycling of elements on Earth for billions of years. However, the majority of microbes present in nature are uncultured and we know little about their physiologies or how geochemical niches are partitioned in nature. Innovations in DNA sequencing technologies and computational analyses now allow us to reconstruct genomes of individual community members from environmental samples. This process, referred to as “metagenomics”, enables elucidation of metabolic pathways of microbes without having to culture them. Furthermore, in situ gene activity can be measured by sequencing community RNA, referred to as “metatranscriptomics”. This dissertation uses these revolutionary approaches to investigate two biogeochemical hot spots in the oceans: deep-sea hydrothermal vent plumes and estuarine sediments.