New Publication in the ISME Journal

Well, it seems like I've only been posting when I get a manuscript published. We'll see how long this system can keep up!

Anyway, the new manuscript is:

Green SJ, Blackford CA, Bucki P, Jahnke LL and Prufert-Bebout L. 2008. A salinity and sulfate manipulation of hypersaline microbial mats reveals stasis in the cyanobacterial community structure. ISME Journal 2:457-470

In this study we examined the effect of salinity and sulfate manipulations on cyanobacterial community composition and relative abundance in hypersaline microbial mats. To do so, we employed several cultivation-independent molecular analyses, including: cyanobacterial-specific PCR-DGGE analysis and colony-PCR with cyanobacterial primers. We demonstrate that the relative abundance of cyanobacteria, as assayed by PCR, was not significantly affected by the manipulations. We demonstrate how colony-PCR with specific population primers can be used to monitor relative abundance without heavy sequencing. Furthermore, the overall cyanobacterial community was only modestly impacted by the salinity and sulfate manipulations, and the cyanobacterial populations that developed under the lowered sulfate and salinity conditions were most closely affiliated with other hypersaline microbial mat cyanobacteria.

This article is a featured article in the current issue of the ISME Journal, and is therefore freely accessible. But please contact me if you cannot get a copy.

Cheers,
Stefan

New Position and New Publication

Well, it has been a while since I updated my blog. My apologies, but the last few months have been quite hectic. I have taken a new position in the Oceanography Department of Florida State University (Tallahassee, FL). I am working for Dr. Joel Kostka on a Department of Energy project exploring bioremediation (or bioimobilization) and natural attenuation of Uranium-contaminated sites.

A paper from the project I was working on at NASA has just been published online at Environmental Microbiology. If you are interested, see: Smith et al. 2008. Shifts in methanogen community structure and function associated with long-term manipulation of sulfate and salinity in a hypersaline microbial mat. Environmental Microbiology 10(2):386–394.
Hope you had a great new year.

Cheers,
Stefan