Investigating the ecology, evolution and metabolism of novel deep-sea hydrothermal lineages
PhD project of Petra Hribovšek
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Project title
Investigating the ecology, evolution and metabolism of novel deep-sea hydrothermal lineages
Supervisors
Runar Stokke, Ida Helene Steen, Håkon Dahle, Steffen Leth Jørgensen, Anja Spang (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and Uppsala University)
Project description
We know very little about very small, uncultivated archaea recently placed into superphylum DPANN. There are so far no known representatives in pure culture, only a few in co-culture together with other archaea. What is common for DPANN is their small cell size and reduced genomes. Genome analyses of DPANN have so far indicated a limited metabolism that suggests that most of these microorganisms are not free-living but associated with a host. I will work mostly with deep-sea sediments and hydrothermal vent samples where these microorganisms have been detected, and I am curious to look at possible host associations. Methods I will be using are advanced deep-sea sampling, catalysed reporter deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization (CARD-FISH), metagenomic analyses, bioinformatics, cultivation, microscopy (light microscopy, fluorescence microscopy, SEM, TEM, helium ion microscopy).
