kdb26

Saline environments are becoming increasingly abundant on Earth. Soil salinization claims millions of acres of agricultural land each year, and 5% of industrial waste effluents are considered hypersaline. Hypersaline environments are colonized by a few groups of microorganisms highly specialized for life at the far edge of salt solubility. While salt tolerance and survival are commonly studied in terms of NaCl concentration, not all hypersaline nvironments are chemically equal. The biology of halophiles in diverse chemical environments is not well characterized. Results of recent preliminary experiments suggest that halophile growth depends on more than just table salt concentration, and these experiments will lead toward predictive models of gene regulation in response to changing hypersaline chemistries. A systems-level understanding of life at extreme salinity has the potential for several broader impacts: 1) rational reengineering of agriculturally important organisms for salinized soil, 2) optimization of [NaCl]-dependent hydrocarbon degradation by halophilic archaea, and 3) insight into cellular response to complex and changing patterns of environmental perturbations. 

 

 

Epi Masters:

 

My MS in Epidemiology (Johanna Lampe, FHCRC) evaluated the association between gut microbial community structure and dietary intake in a cohort of 120 healthy women. Data used were nutrient intake data and Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (TRFLP) analysis of fecal samples. Using ecological community analyses as well as multiple linear regression, we found that high fiber consumption is associated with a unique gut community profile.