{"id":64555,"date":"2021-11-18T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2021-11-18T15:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=64555"},"modified":"2021-11-17T14:22:43","modified_gmt":"2021-11-17T21:22:43","slug":"marks-algae-microbiome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/marks-algae-microbiome\/","title":{"rendered":"Decoding biological mysteries with algae: NAU team wins $3M from NSF to model microbiome"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0tiny\u00a0cosmos\u00a0of organisms\u00a0living\u00a0on\u00a0a streamer of algae in a river\u2014the algal microbiome\u2014could help\u00a0scientists\u00a0learn\u00a0what\u00a0turns\u00a0an environment\u00a0from healthy to toxic and back again.\u00a0A\u00a0multidisciplinary\u00a0team\u00a0led by\u00a0Northern Arizona University has\u00a0won $3 million\u00a0from the National Science Foundation to\u00a0translate\u00a0the\u00a0codex\u00a0contained\u00a0in\u00a0the microbiome of\u00a0common algae into computer algorithms\u00a0that can predict\u00a0a wide range of\u00a0microbial interactions.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The team, which includes researchers from NAU, University of California-Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and University of Nebraska-Lincoln, will conduct experiments in rivers in Arizona and California. By manipulating nutrients and sunlight, they will look for the biological \u201cswitches\u201d that get turned on and off by organisms living in the algal mat, a laminate composed of algae, bacteria, fungi and tiny animals that grows on rocks and sediments of riverbeds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen does productive algae become toxic strains of Cyanobacteria, which can be really harmful to marine life, dogs and humans, and what are the biological switches that flip?\u201d said principal investigator Jane Marks<\/strong>, professor in biology in the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (Ecoss) at NAU. \u201cEven in a relatively pristine river like the Eel, we get these very sudden shifts from productivity to toxicity, and we don\u2019t really understand the tipping points.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because\u00a0algal mats are\u00a0long-studied and\u00a0relatively accessible\u00a0to observe, the team will use\u00a0them as\u00a0models\u00a0to better learn how\u00a0microbial communities beyond rivers\u00a0behave. The team\u00a0will combine field experiments with high-tech molecular tools and machine learning to unravel the complex interactions among bacteria\u00a0and algae\u00a0into a set of predictive\u00a0rules. The experiments they conduct and computer models they develop will\u00a0illuminate\u00a0which interactions among micro-organisms have the power to change the health of a river or a human gut.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Rules
Images by Victor O. Leshyk, Ecoss<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to\u00a0gather new kinds of\u00a0measurements\u00a0with this\u00a0team,\u00a0like\u00a0species-specific carbon and nitrogen uptake rates,\u201d said\u00a0<\/span>Toby Hocking<\/span><\/b>, assistant professor in the School of Informatics, Computing,\u00a0and Cyber Systems\u00a0at NAU\u00a0and co-principal investigator on the project. \u201cMost previous work\u00a0has been\u00a0limited to measurement of abundance data, which means\u00a0counting the\u00a0individuals of a species in a population.\u00a0But\u00a0having\u00a0only abundance data\u00a0makes it\u00a0very difficult to infer more complex interactions such as mutualism and predation.\u00a0Combining\u00a0our\u00a0metabolic data\u00a0with\u00a0abundance\u00a0will\u00a0reveal new details about interactions and relationships between species\u00a0in these microbial communities.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSince we\u00a0can’t walk through an algal forest to map out where nutrients are going, we need to use isotopic tools like\u00a0qSIP\u00a0(quantitative stable isotope probing)\u00a0and\u00a0NanoSIMS\u00a0(nano secondary ion mass spectrometry), which\u00a0allow us to follow carbon and nitrogen as it moves through the system,\u201d\u00a0Marks\u00a0said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPulling\u00a0nitrogen into the river food web, as the diatom\u00a0<\/span>Epithemia<\/span><\/i>\u00a0does,\u00a0is hugely important for fish like salmon and other riverine consumers,\u201d said Mary Power, a professor at University of California-Berkeley and co-principal investigator on the project.\u00a0\u201cUsing the sophisticated technology\u00a0Ecoss\u00a0developed,\u00a0we can track how\u00a0<\/span>Epithemia<\/span><\/i>\u2014the Greek word for desire\u2014and\u00a0its\u00a0amazing endosymbiont\u00a0bring nitrogen into the river.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The NSF award\u00a0will support\u00a0training\u00a010\u00a0undergraduate students,\u00a0two postdocs\u00a0and\u00a0four graduate researchers\u00a0at NAU.\u00a0The team will collaborate with tribal community partners and\u00a0citizen scientists\u00a0to conduct field trips called \u201calgal forays,\u201d and plans to share what they learn about the algae microbiome through community art and science collaborations like\u00a0<\/span>Parched:\u00a0the\u00a0Art of Water in the Southwest<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For Marks, who\u00a0studies\u00a0how\u00a0freshwater\u00a0food\u00a0webs respond to environmental change,\u00a0this project represents a return to\u00a0her first\u00a0scientific\u00a0love:\u00a0exploring life\u00a0underwater.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJane first taught me to recognize\u00a0<\/span>Epithemia<\/span><\/i>\u00a0when she\u00a0began her dissertation work in the Eel River\u00a0three decades ago,\u201d\u00a0Power<\/span>\u00a0said<\/span>. \u201cNow we\u2019re back on its trail, learning how changes in river temperatures, flows\u00a0and other factors can turn\u00a0this\u00a0algae\u00a0from\u00a0an excellent food source\u00a0for\u00a0salmon-bearing food chains\u00a0into\u00a0a\u00a0victim of overgrowth by\u00a0other toxic\u00a0algae and\u00a0Cyanobacteria.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have loved algae for many, many\u00a0years,\u201d\u00a0Marks\u00a0said.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s green and slimy,\u00a0but\u00a0when\u00a0you put it under the microscope, you\u00a0enter\u00a0this secret world. There are epiphytes of all\u00a0colors and\u00a0shapes\u00a0and\u00a0structures that rival the planet\u2019s densest forests. I love getting to go back there with new questions.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/p>\n

Kate Petersen | Center for Ecosystem Science and Society<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0tiny\u00a0cosmos\u00a0of organisms\u00a0living\u00a0on\u00a0a streamer of algae in a river\u2014the algal microbiome\u2014could help\u00a0scientists\u00a0learn\u00a0what\u00a0turns\u00a0an environment\u00a0from healthy to toxic and back again.\u00a0A\u00a0multidisciplinary\u00a0team\u00a0led by\u00a0Northern Arizona University has\u00a0won $3 million\u00a0from the National Science Foundation to\u00a0translate\u00a0the\u00a0codex\u00a0contained\u00a0in\u00a0the microbiome of\u00a0common algae into computer algorithms\u00a0that can predict\u00a0a wide range of\u00a0microbial interactions.\u00a0\u00a0 The team, which includes researchers from NAU, University of California-Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":64556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}