Comprehensive Genomic Analysis of Salt-impacted Microbial Communities in their Environmental Context

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

A Focus on Hypersaline Environments: Fresh water is a vital resource that will come under increasing pressure with population growth in the next century. Draw down of aquifers in response to over-utilization of groundwater can lead to salinity increases that threaten drinking water supplies and agriculture. Society will be seeking new ways in which to monitor and manage salt-impacted ecosystems. This significant challenge may be met, in part, by methods that rely upon a molecular level understanding of how microbial communities respond to changes in salt concentration. Abundant hypersaline microbial communities from Lake Tyrrell, Australia, will be extensively genomically characterized to generate information necessary for comprehensive identification of the molecular machinery of salt adaptation and for determination of the subtle ways in which this biogeochemical machinery varies along salt gradients. Salinization is acknowledged as one of the major problems facing agriculture. Large areas of the U.S., particularly parts of southern California and Arizona, are likely to be confronted by growing salinity problems in the coming decades. The situation is likely to be aggravated as our energy needs are increasingly met by agriculturally-based biofuel production in the form of sustainable crop derivatives such as bioethanol. Biochemical information may be used, for example, to design more salt tolerant organisms for microbial biofuel production or agriculture. The microbial genomic sequence data will form the core of a public involvement in science project designed to share the excitement of scientific discovery with the broadest possible participant group. The web-based project will be developed by an international team of scientists and educators. It will include virtual tours of the field site and sequencing facility and a web portal to allow participants to discover how DNA sequence can be used to learn about how microorganisms contribute to carbon cycling and uncover clues to the ways in which they adapt to their surroundings.