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Awards > Postdoctoral Fellowships
Passing electrons through marine sediments: Cultivation and characterization of microbes that utilize extracellular electron transport
Awardee: Annette R. Rowe (University of Southern California)
Current Placement: Assistant Professor, University of Cincinnati
Degree: Ph.D. Microbiology, Cornell University (2011)
Advisor: Kenneth H. Nealson (University of Southern California)
Amount: $100,000.00
Award Dates: May 1, 2013 — April 30, 2015

Abstract

One of the major questions in subsurface biology is understanding how microrganisms in the subsurface are “making a living”. However, there is a dearth of knowledge concerning the physiology of major microbial groups that likely dominate the subsurface, including the lithotrophic or “rock-eating” microbes. This, in turn, makes one of the major research goals of C-DEBI, identifying and assessing activity in the deep subsurface biosphere, extremely difficult for these processes (i.e. not identified via “meta-omic” based studies) and in many cases these metabolisms are probably overlooked. Through my C-DEBI fellowship I was able to develop techniques for electrochemical cultivation of lithotrophic microbes to help facilitate identification and further study of microbial groups with these abilities. As part of this work I targeted cultivation of several groups of facultative lithotrophs that are phylogenetically related to organisms that are genetically tractable, and I’m currently in the process of building draft genomes for these microbes. It is my goal to use these microbes as model systems for understanding and biochemically characterizing the physiology of lithotrophs that will lead to better genetic markers to identify these physiologies in the environment. The work done through this fellowship has currently resulted in one publication in Frontiers in Microbiology on the electrochemical cultivation and isolation of facultative lithotrophs and tracking the physiology of cathode oxidizing microbes is the publication that will be submitted this summer. One of the most exciting results from this work is that the majority of microbes isolated from the one marine sediment tested, appear to have different redox potential where they catalyze the oxidation of a cathode suggesting a variety of different protein pathways used. This highlights both the unknown nature of these processes and the diversity of potential lithotrophic metabolic pathways.

Related Items

Publications
Publications > Journal Article
Published: January 14, 2015
Frontiers in Microbiology
Marine sediments microbes capable of electrode oxidation as a surrogate for lithotrophic insoluble substrate metabolism
Authors: Annette R. Rowe, Prithiviraj Chellamuthu, Bonita R. Lam, Akihiro Okamoto, Kenneth H. Nealson
C-DEBI Contribution Number: 255
Publications > Journal Article
Published: March 1, 2017
Environmental Microbiology
In situ electrochemical enrichment and isolation of a magnetite-reducing bacterium from a high pH serpentinizing spring
Authors: Annette R. Rowe, Miho Yoshimura, Douglas E. LaRowe, Lina J. Bird, Jan P. Amend, Kazuhito Hashimoto, Kenneth H. Nealson, Akihiro Okamoto
C-DEBI Contribution Number: 364
Publications > Journal Article
Published: February 27, 2018
mBio
Tracking Electron Uptake from a Cathode into Shewanella Cells: Implications for Energy Acquisition from Solid-Substrate Electron Donors
Authors: Annette R. Rowe, Pournami Rajeev, Abhiney Jain, Sahand Pirbadian, Akihiro Okamoto, Jeffrey A. Gralnick, Mohamed Y. El-Naggar, Kenneth H. Nealson
Editors: Markus W. Ribbe
C-DEBI Contribution Number: 417
Publications > Journal Article
Published: March 23, 2018
International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology
Thioclava electrotropha sp. nov., a versatile electrode and sulfur-oxidizing bacterium from marine sediments
Authors: Rachel Chang, Lina J. Bird, Casey R. Barr, Magdalena R. Osburn, Elizabeth Wilbanks, Kenneth H. Nealson, Annette R. Rowe
C-DEBI Contribution Number: 420
Publications > Journal Article
Published: June 1, 2018
Environmental Microbiology
Variation in electrode redox potential selects for different microorganisms under cathodic current flow from electrodes in marine sediments
Authors: Bonita R. Lam, Annette R. Rowe, Kenneth H. Nealson
C-DEBI Contribution Number: 433
Publications > Journal Article
Published: August 28, 2019
Frontiers in Microbiology
Differences in Applied Redox Potential on Cathodes Enrich for Diverse Electrochemically Active Microbial Isolates From a Marine Sediment
Authors: Bonita R. Lam, Casey R. Barr, Annette R. Rowe, Kenneth H. Nealson
C-DEBI Contribution Number: 490
Publications > Journal Article
Published: September 1, 2019
Electrochimica Acta
An electrochemical investigation of interfacial electron uptake by the sulfur oxidizing bacterium Thioclava electrotropha ElOx9
Authors: Amruta A. Karbelkar, Annette R. Rowe, Mohamed Y. El-Naggar
C-DEBI Contribution Number: 493
Project Data
Project Data
Last Modified: January 28, 2016
Passing electrons through marine sediments: Cultivation and characterization of microbes that utilize extracellular electron transports
Project Maintainers: Annette R. Rowe, Kenneth H. Nealson

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