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Seminar: Dr. Jennifer Glass, Georgia Tech University
February 4, 2015 @ 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Exploring Novel Metabolisms by Integrating Geochemical and Biological Approaches
Dr. Jennifer Glass, Assistant Professor
Georgia Tech University, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
February 4, 2015
3:00p.m. – Room G201 Murray
Reception follows immediately after the seminar.
Held in the lobby on the 3rd Floor of Venable Hall
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with 25x the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. Microbes are responsible for the majority of methane cycling on Earth, and methane-based metabolisms may have sustained ancient ecosystems prior to the rise of oxygen. We are exploring microbial mechanisms of anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) in diverse habitats by integrating geochemical and molecular biology approaches. This approach enables us to identify key enzymes catalyzing AOM coupled to sulfate reduction in uncultivated microbes at marine methane seeps, and is now the focus of a new project aiming to characterize unknown microbes mediating AOM coupled to iron and manganese reduction in Lake Matano, an ancient ocean analogue. I will present these and other examples to illustrate the power of coupling geochemical data with activity rate measurements and next-generation “meta-omics” sequencing technologies to probe biogeochemical questions from multiple angles.