NAI
2012 Annual Science Report
Arizona State University
Reporting | SEP 2011 – AUG 2012
Stoichiometry of Life, Task 3b: Ancient Records - Genomic
Project Summary
The goal of Task 3b is to bring the enormous and ever-increasing repository of genomic data, both from single organisms and natural environments, to bear on understanding the history of life on Earth. Team members bring together innovative, integrative methods for understanding the interaction and feedback between life and environment, in particular how nutrient and energy limitations shape evolution. These efforts are focused not only on ancient records, but also are playing an important role in understanding how life and environment co-evolve on the modern Earth.
Project Progress
Team members for Task 3b have been involved in several noteworthy accomplishments. In particular, the August 2012 issue of Astrobiology was dedicated to recent progress in Cuatro Cienegas and its relevance to present and future Mars missions. Drs. DuPont and Siefert are both involved in this multidisciplinary, international collaboration, and Dr. Siefert was a coauthor on three papers that appeared in that issue. This work has undeniably advanced the ball in understanding the effects of severe nutrient limitation on both the biodiversity and function of extremophilic life. The NASA “Follow the Elements”-sponsored research in Yellowstone has also seen a number of multidisciplinary publications by team members Boyd and Raymond. Collectively, funding for Task 3b has advanced a number of new techniques for interrogating evolutionary mechanisms in modern environments as a way to understand the ancient genomic record (Siefert, Raymond) and further resolved how and when these events changed the evolutionary trajectory of early life on Earth (DuPont, Boyd). A major goal for the remainder of the project will be to integrate these approaches, which are focused on very different times and environments, into a unified understanding of how the availability of a number of key elements drove biological innovation and evolution.
Publications
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Boyd, E. S., Hamilton, T. L., & Peters, J. W. (2011). An Alternative Path for the Evolution of Biological Nitrogen Fixation. Frontiers in Microbiology, 2. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2011.00205
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Dupont, C. L., Grass, G., & Rensing, C. (2011). Copper toxicity and the origin of bacterial resistance—new insights and applications. Metallomics, 3(11), 1109. doi:10.1039/c1mt00107h
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Dupont, C. L., Johnson, D. A., Phillippy, K., Paulsen, I. T., Brahamsha, B., & Palenik, B. (2012). Genetic Identification of a High-Affinity Ni Transporter and the Transcriptional Response to Ni Deprivation in Synechococcus sp. Strain WH8102. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 78(22), 7822–7832. doi:10.1128/aem.01739-12
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Schut, G. J., Boyd, E. S., Peters, J. W., & Adams, M. W. W. (2013). The modular respiratory complexes involved in hydrogen and sulfur metabolism by heterotrophic hyperthermophilic archaea and their evolutionary implications. FEMS Microbiol Rev, 37(2), 182–203. doi:10.1111/j.1574-6976.2012.00346.x
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Swingley, W. D., Meyer-Dombard, D. A. R., Shock, E. L., Alsop, E. B., Falenski, H. D., Havig, J. R., & Raymond, J. (2012). Coordinating Environmental Genomics and Geochemistry Reveals Metabolic Transitions in a Hot Spring Ecosystem. PLoS ONE, 7(6), e38108. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0038108
- Arslan, B., Boyd, E.S., Dolci, W., Dodson, E., Boldt, M. & Pilcher, C. (2011). Workshop without walls: Broadening access to science around the world. PLOS Biology, 9. doi:e1001118
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PROJECT INVESTIGATORS:
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PROJECT MEMBERS:
Christopher Dupont
Co-Investigator
Janet Siefert
Co-Investigator
Eric Boyd
Collaborator
Matthew Kellom
Doctoral Student
Eric Alsop
Graduate Student
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RELATED OBJECTIVES:
Objective 5.1
Environment-dependent, molecular evolution in microorganisms
Objective 5.2
Co-evolution of microbial communities
Objective 5.3
Biochemical adaptation to extreme environments
