How do microbial activities change the environment, and how does a changing environment influence the evolution of microbes and their activities?
The system of these intertwining processes is of interest in many respects, for example, regarding the role of microbes in the major nutrient cycles, and the particular role of the functional genes therein.
Focussing on nitrate reduction, one of the key processes performed by microbes in the biosphere, my research here at the MPI in Bremen and at the CeBiTec in Bielefeld takes interest in the following questions:
- How are microbial properties and activities reflected in their genomes, transcriptomes and proteomes?
- How can the investigation of their DNA, RNA and proteins help us understand the role of microbes in the processes resulting in changes of the environment on a local and global scale?
- Can „marker genes“ for particular microbial activities be identified in habitats of complex microbial communities, and if yes, how are they best employed as suitable tools for further environmental and biotechnical research?
- How does human impact, such as extensive nitrogen fertilization, affect microbial activity and influence the system of nutrient cycles?
Combining the research resources provided by the MPI and the CeBiTec, these questions will be addressed by a variety of approaches, such as the precisely monitored cultivation of environmental microbial communities in continuous bioreactors under dynamic conditions, pyrosequencing of their metagenomes and -transcriptomes, and the interpretation of the detected functional „gene patterns“ associated with nitrate reduction.
The obtained information is used for the evaluation of the detected (and the potential) nitrate reducing activity in the habitat or system under observation, and for the assessment of the functional versatility of environmental microbial communities.