T50 Undergraduate Research Talks: The Next Step in Student Research Projects

Sunday, 25 September 2016
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Room 406

ENGINEERING PSEUDOMONAS STUTZERI AS A BIOGEOCHEMICAL BIOSENSOR

Paper number: T50-13
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 4:20 PM – 4:35 PM

Authors

Abstract

Biogeochemical cycles are being drastically altered as a result of anthropogenic activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels and the Haber-Bosch process. We know microbes play a major part in these cycles, but the extent of their biogeochemical roles remains largely uncharacterized due to inadequacies in culturing and measurement. While metagenomics and other –omics methods offer ways to reconstruct microbial communities, these approaches can only give an indication of the functional roles of microbes in a community. These –omics approaches are rapidly being expanded to the point of outpacing our knowledge of functional genes, which highlights an inherent need for analytical methods that non-invasively monitor Earth’s processes in real time.

Here we aim to exploit synthetic biology methods in order to engineer a ubiquitous denitrifying microbe, Pseudomonas stutzeri, that can act as a biosensor in soil and marine environments. By using an easily cultivated microbe that is also common in many environments, we hope to develop a tool that allows us to zoom in on specific aspects of the nitrogen cycle. In order to monitor what’s going on at the genetic level in environments that cannot be resolved with fluorescence-based methods, we have developed a system that instead relies on gas production by these microbial biosensors.

P. stutzeri has been successfully engineered to release a gas, methyl bromide, which can continuously and non-invasively be measured by GC-MS. The gene controlling gas production can be linked to those involved in denitrification, thereby creating a quantifiable gas signal that is correlated with microbial activity. Synthetically engineered microbial biosensors could reveal key aspects of metabolism in soil systems and offer a tool for characterizing the scope and degree of microbial impact on major biogeochemical cycles.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 48, No. 7

doi: 10.1130/abs/2016AM-286788

© Copyright 2016 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.