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Project Reports

• Benner – Self-Reproducing Molecular Systems and Darwinian Chemistry

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1 2.2 3.1 3.2 4.1 4.2 4.3 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.2 7.1 7.2

• Eukaryotic Biodiversity and Physiology at Acidic Extremes: Spain’s Tinto River

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1

• First-Stage Biofilm Formation Under Extreme Conditions in Ice

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.2

• Isotopic and Molecular Approaches to Microbial Ecology and Biogeochemistry (The Evolution of Organic Matter)

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 7.1 7.2

• Bacterial Adaptation to Low Temperatures

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.3 6.2

• Evolution in Microbe-Based Ecosystems: Desert Springs as Analogues for the Early Development and Stabilization of Ecological Systems

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 7.1

• Indigenous Bacteria of Arctic and Antarctic Permafrost

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.3 6.1

• Eukaryotic rRNA Evolution: Origins of “Crown Group Taxa”

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.2 5.1

• Molecular Survey of Microbial Diversity in Hypersaline Ecosystems, Ecogenomics

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2 3.4 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 7.1 7.2

• Genomic and Proteomic Analysis of Permafrost Bacteria

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.3 6.2

• Eukaryotic Origins and the Evolution of Cellular Complexity – Eukaryotic rRNA Evolution: Early Diverging Eukaryotes

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.2 5.1 5.2 5.3

• Recruitment of Proteins to Serve New Functions

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2 4.2 5.1

• Theoretical Studies of Hydrothermal Synthesis Reactions

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.2 3.1 3.2 4.2 5.1 5.3 6.1

• Ecological Genomics

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1

• Genomic Evolution and the Tree of Life

  Horizontal gene transfer greatly accelerates genome evolution and Innovation. We are comparing the genomes of eight prokaryotes and related horizontal gene transfer (HGT) to environmental and genomic properties of the organisms and their habitats.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2 3.4 4.2 5.1 5.2 5.3

• Mineralogical Biosignatures

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.2 6.1 7.1

• Genes That Regulate Photosymbiotic Interactions

  We are interested in identifying genes that may impart symbiotic competence to the dinoflagellate symbionts of planktonic protists (foraminifera and radiolaria).

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.2 5.1 5.2

• Evolution of Biocomplexity From an Ancient Autotrophic Lineage

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2 3.3 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.3 6.1

• Biological Studies of Hydrothermal Systems

  Task 1. Field Studies and Laboratory Characterization of Hydrothermal Vent Microbes (Baross)

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.3 6.1 7.1

• Evogenomics Focus Group

  In year 5, Co-I Charles Marshall continued his statistical analyses of the fossil record as part of the Evogenomics Focus Group.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 4.2 5.1

• A New Molecular Recognition Instrument for Astrobiological Applications

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 3.1 3.2 4.1 5.1 6.2 7.1

• Diversity and Physiology of Prokaryotes in Selected Thermophilic and Mesophilic Environments That Might Resemble Early Earth’s Biosphere

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.1 5.2 5.3

• Magnetic Biosignatures

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1 3.1 3.3 4.1 4.2 4.3 5.1 6.1 7.1

• Evolution of Proteins

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2 3.4 5.1

• Symbiosis and the Origin of Multicellularity in Photosynthetic Organisms

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.2 5.1 5.2 6.1

• Microbial Symbionts: Agents for Reorganizing Genome Architectures.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.2 5.1 5.2 6.2

• Enzymes of Ancient Metabolic Pathways

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.3 4.1 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2

• Microbial Mat Communities

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1

• Isolation of Psychrophilic Microorganisms

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.4 4.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2