Staff View
Surveying the metabolic versatility of biofilm-forming Epsilonproteobacteria

Descriptive

TitleInfo
Title
Surveying the metabolic versatility of biofilm-forming Epsilonproteobacteria
SubTitle
a study into developing ecosystems at extreme environments
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
OBrien
NamePart (type = given)
Charles Edward
DisplayForm
Charles OBrien
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
author
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Vetriani
NamePart (type = given)
Costantino
DisplayForm
Costantino Vetriani
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
chair
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Haggblom
NamePart (type = given)
Max
DisplayForm
Max Haggblom
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
internal member
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Bidle
NamePart (type = given)
Kay
DisplayForm
Kay Bidle
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
outside member
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Kerkhof
NamePart (type = given)
Lee
DisplayForm
Lee Kerkhof
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
outside member
Name (type = corporate)
NamePart
Rutgers University
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
degree grantor
Name (type = corporate)
NamePart
Graduate School - New Brunswick
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
school
TypeOfResource
Text
Genre (authority = marcgt)
theses
OriginInfo
DateCreated (qualifier = exact)
2013
DateOther (qualifier = exact); (type = degree)
2013-05
Place
PlaceTerm (type = code)
xx
Language
LanguageTerm (authority = ISO639-2b); (type = code)
eng
Abstract (type = abstract)
At deep-sea hydrothermal vents, mixing of reduced, super-heated, hydrothermal fluids with cold, oxygenated, seawater creates steep temperature and chemical gradients that support chemosynthetic primary production and rich communities of invertebrates. In 2006, an eruption occurred on East Pacific Rise at 9° 50’N, 104° 17’W. Direct observations of the post-eruptive diffuse flow vents clearly indicated that the earliest colonizers were microbial biofilms. A series of cruises in 2006-07 allowed us to monitor the recovery of the ecosystem. The main objectives of this dissertation are to assess the taxonomic and functional diversity of chemosynthetic bacteria following the eruption, and to correlate it to macrofaunal colonization. To this end, I investigated several microbial biofilms that developed at the bottom of the ocean during exposure to different temperature, redox and biological regimes. Furthermore, I selected pure cultures of vent bacteria representative of these biofilms and designed experiments to investigate their expression of diagnostic genes involved in carbon fixation and respiration. Finally, I used the information obtained from the pure cultures and from metatranscriptomic studies of the vent biofilms to design experiments for the detection of gene transcripts in chemosynthetic microbial biofilm communities collected from deep-sea hydrothermal vents, and to interpret the results. My data showed that the biofilm communities that were exposed to active venting were substantially different from the ones that formed at control sites, and that vent invertebrates could only be detected at the former sites. Furthermore, I found that various members of the Epsilonproteobacteria dominated the chemosynthetic biofilm communities, and that these bacteria fixed carbon dioxide in-situ via the reverse tricarboxylic acid (rTCA) cycle and that they expressed different terminal reductases in response to variable temperature and redox conditions. I demonstrated for the first time that different respiratory pathways (e.g., nitrate reduction, sulfur oxidation/reduction, microaerobic respiration) are expressed simultaneously in chemosynthetic biofilms. In turn, these results imply that the extremely dynamic conditions found at diffuse flow vents, where reduced hydrothermal fluids mix with oxic seawater, provide the biofilm bacteria with a diverse “metabolic menu” in the form of different redox couples that they can use to conserve energy.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_4641
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
xiii, 124 p. : ill.
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Charles Edward O'Brien
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Hydrothermal vents--Microbiology
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Hydrothermal vent ecology
Identifier (type = hdl)
http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.1/rucore10001600001.ETD.000068927
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore19991600001
Location
PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg); (displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
NjNbRU
Identifier (type = doi)
doi:10.7282/T3RB736Z
Genre (authority = ExL-Esploro)
ETD doctoral
Back to the top

Rights

RightsDeclaration (ID = rulibRdec0006)
The author owns the copyright to this work.
RightsHolder (type = personal)
Name
FamilyName
OBrien
GivenName
Charles
Role
Copyright Holder
RightsEvent
Type
Permission or license
DateTime (encoding = w3cdtf); (qualifier = exact); (point = start)
2013-04-11 18:36:02
AssociatedEntity
Name
Charles OBrien
Role
Copyright holder
Affiliation
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
AssociatedObject
Type
License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
RightsEvent
DateTime (encoding = w3cdtf); (qualifier = exact); (point = start)
2013-05-31
DateTime (encoding = w3cdtf); (qualifier = exact); (point = end)
2015-05-31
Type
Embargo
Detail
Access to this PDF has been restricted at the author's request. It will be publicly available after May 31st, 2015.
Copyright
Status
Copyright protected
Availability
Status
Open
Reason
Permission or license
Back to the top

Technical

RULTechMD (ID = TECHNICAL1)
ContentModel
ETD
OperatingSystem (VERSION = 5.1)
windows xp
Back to the top
Version 8.5.5
Rutgers University Libraries - Copyright ©2024