Funded Projects - C. Vetriani

External Funding

NSF Dimensions of Biodiversity: Collaborative Research: An integrated study of energy metabolism, carbon fixation, and colonization mechanisms in chemosynthetic microbial communities at deep-sea vents. National Science Foundation. October 1, 2011 - September 30, 2014. P.I.

Summary: We propose a 3-year interdisciplinary, international hypothesis-driven research program to understand microbial processes and their quantitative importance at deep-sea vents. Specifically, we will address the following objectives: 1. Determine key relationships between the taxonomic, genetic and functional diversity, as well as the mechanisms of energy and carbon transfer, in deep-sea hydrothermal vent microbial communities. 2. Identify the predominant metabolic pathways and thus the main energy sources driving chemoautotrophic production in high and low temperature diffuse flow vents. 3. Determine energy conservation efficiency and rates of aerobic and anaerobic chemosynthetic primary productivity in high and low temperature diffuse flow vents. 4. Determine gene expression patterns in diffuse-flow vent microbial communities during attachment to substrates and the development of biofilms.

NSF Biological Oceanography: Collaborative Research: Autotrophic carbon fixation at a shallow-water hydrothermal system: Constraining microbial activity, isotopic and geochemical regimes. National Science Foundation. October 1, 2011 - September 30, 2013. P.I.

Summary: We propose a research program that employs a powerful combination of cutting-edge research tools aiming to improve our understanding of autotrophic carbon fixation and its chemical and isotopic signature along environmental gradients in the shallow water hydrothermal system of Milos island, Greece.

NSF Supplement to NSF MCB Transcriptional analysis of the deep-sea vent Epsilonproteobacterium, Caminibacter mediatlanticus, in response to different growth conditions. July18, 2011 - June 30, 2012. Vetriani, C. (PI).

NSF RIDGE: Collaborative Research: Integrating geological, chemical, and biological processes: Implications for ecological succession on the East Pacific Rise. National Science Foundation. September 1, 2009 – August 31, 2010. Co-P.I.

Summary: We propose to characterize the pre- and post-eruption environmental context of chemical, microbial and metazoan colonization over time, with the additional goal of identifying the relevant scales of integration and synthesis of our ecological observations and experiments for future investigations of community dynamics at hydrothermal vents.

NSF-MCB (Metabolic Biochemistry): Transcriptional analysis of the deep-sea vent Epsilonproteobacterium, Caminibacter mediatlanticus, in response to different growth conditions. March 15, 2009 - March 31, 2012. P.I.

Summary: This project combines physiological experiments, carried out using batch, continuous cultures, and in-situ incubations, with the quantification of the expression of specific genes (by qRT-PCR) in the deep-sea vent bacterium Caminibacter mediatlanticus, using information derived from the genome sequence of this organism. The significance of the proposed study rest in the fact that gene expression in C. mediatlanticus will be investigated under growth conditions that reflect, in terms of concentrations of nutrients, those encountered by this organism in its natural environment. Such genome-enabled studies are critical to acquire fundamental information on gene expression in organisms that are ecologically relevant in their natural habitat, and to bridge the gap between laboratory-based investigations of pure cultures and environmental studies of natural microbial communities.

Genome Sequencing Projects:

Department of Energy/Joint Genome Institute: Thermovibrio ammonificans DSM 15698. P.I.

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation: Caminibacter mediatlanticus DSM 16658. P.I.

NSF Center for Environmental and BioInorganic Chemistry (CEBIC - P.I.: Dr. F. Morel, Princeton University): Alkane Oxidation in Pure Cultures and Natural Microbial Communities from Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents: Linking Diversity and Function. October 1, 2005 - September 30, 2006. Subcontract, P.I.

Summary: The proposed work focuses on alkane-oxiding bacteria, a group of organisms which has not been investigated in detail in marine geothermal environments, but which we are showing to be relevant at deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Our work will specifically investigate the link between diversity and function in this class of organisms by targeting the alkB gene, which encodes for the alkane hydroxylase, a key enzyme in the oxidation of n-alkanes.

NSF MIP Collaborative Research: Physiology and Molecular Ecology of Thermophilic Nitrate-Reducing Microorganisms at Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents. June 15, 2005 - May 31, 2008. No cost extension to May 31, 2009. P.I.

Summary: This study will investigate the physiology and ecology of thermophilic, nitrate-reducing microorganisms at deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Since the microbial contribution to the nitrogen cycle at deep-sea hydrothermal vents remains largely unknown, this study is designed to fill this gap. Recent studies revealed the occurrence of novel thermophilic microorganisms that couple the reduction of nitrate with autotrophic CO2 fixation in marine geothermal environments. The ecological significance of such a microbial community at deep-sea vents is twofold: 1) these organisms contribute to the primary productivity by fixing CO2, and 2) their nitrate respiratory metabolism (namely, the reduction of NO3- to NO2-, N2, or NH4+) implicate that nitrogen is conserved within the vent system and is recycled into the vent nitrogen cycle. This research will integrate novel cultivation and molecular techniques with stable isotope analyses to explore the physiology of nitrate-reducing microorganisms, and to assess their functional diversity and activity. By establishing a link between physiology, phylogeny and activity, this study will contribute to our understanding of the ecological relevance of nitrate-reducing organisms at deep-sea vents, as well as their contribution to both the carbon and nitrogen cycling. This research will also contribute to the expansion of the database of genes relevant to CO2 fixation and NO3- reduction, allowing for the improvement of detection tool for monitoring these microbial processes in the environment. This project will offer training opportunities to one graduate student and several undergraduate students, and it will support educational and outreach activities associated with several NSF-sponsored programs (e.g., the Mid-Atlantic Center for Ocean Science Education Excellence and the Student Experiments at Sea).

NSF REU Supplement to NSF MCB Microbial Interactions and Processes: Physiology and molecular ecology of thermophilic nitrate-reducing microorgansisms at deep-sea hydrothermal vents. June 15, 2006 - May 31, 2007. Vetriani, C. (PI).

NSF RIDGE Collaborative Research: Integrated Studies of Biological Community Structure at Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents. October 1, 2003 - September 30, 2007. Supplement and extension to March 31, 2009. Co-P.I.

Summary: Our proposed studies represent an integrated program designed to assess factors responsible for biological community structure at hydrothermal vents in the area between 9°49.61' and 9°50.36'N (known as the Biologic-Geologic Transect) along the crest of the East Pacific Rise (EPR). The objective of this multi-disciplinary effort is to gain a fundamental new understanding of the biological, chemical, and physical characteristics, variability, and processes affecting organism community structure (from microbes to megafauna) in deep-sea vent systems. We have selected study sites which we feel are optimal for building upon the extensive recent data sets obtained in, or in close proximity to, the 9°50'N EPR region, an area heavily impacted by an April 1991 volcanic eruption along the ridge crest. These are also sites that should maximize integration with a variety of envisioned geophysical (e.g., seismic) and geochemical (e.g., major element) studies envisioned as being conducted by other workers.
Our proposed studies are designed to address the following broad hypotheses:
(1) Dramatic changes in biological community structure at vents are correlated with seismic, tectonic and/or volcanic activity within the region.
(2) Vent fluid chemistry (principally sulfide speciation and concentration) is the predominant factor controlling the structure of vent communities.
(3) The structure of microbial communities associated with diffuse flows varies with time, temperature, and in response to differences in oxygen, iron, manganese and sulfur speciation.

NSF Biocomplexity: EREUPT: The Evolution and Radiation of Eucaryotic Phytoplankton. September 1, 2000 - August 31, 2005. Co-P.I.

Internal Funding - Rutgers University

Rutgers University, Research Council Grant “Analysis of functional gene transcripts in microbial chemosynthetic biofilms from deep-sea hydrothermal vents ”. 2011 - 2012. PI.

Rutgers University, Research Council Grant “Development of a system for the genetic manipulation of the deep-sea vent Epsiloproteobacterium, Caminibacter mediatlanticus”. 2008 - 2009. PI.

Rutgers Undergraduate Research Fellow Program. “Application of Fluorescent In-Situ Hybridization (FISH) for the Quantitative Detection of Nitrate-Reducing Bacteria from Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents". 2004– 2005. PI

Department of Agriculture and NJAES: “Discovery and Biotechnological Applications of Novel Microorganisms from High Temperature Environments”. 2001-2004. PI

Rutgers University, Basic Research Grant "Assessment of the Ecological Relevance of Nitrate-Ammonifiyng Microorganisms from Deep-Sea Vents". 2004. PI

Rutgers University, Research Council Grant “Isolation of Anaerobic Thermophilic Bacteria from Hydrothermal Vents”. 2003 - 2004. PI

Rutgers Undergraduate Research Fellow Program. “Isolation of Thermophilic, Chemolithotrophic, Nitrate-Reducing Bacteria from Deep-Sea Hydrothermal vents. 2003 – 2004. PI

Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences/Rutgers University Summer Research Program “Microbial Oxidation of n-Alkanes: Isolation of Organisms from Deep-Sea Vents and Cold Seeps, and Identification of Alkane Hydroxylase Genes”. 2003. PI