How do bacteria that grow in soda lakes make a living oxidizing sulfur compounds?
Recently discovered sulfur bacteria that grow in soda lakes (at pH values up to 10!) are of particular interest to industry for removal of sulfur compounds from flue-gas, but little is known about how this process works and what proteins are involved in it. As part of this work you will learn to grow these extremophilic bacteria and then analyse the proteins present under different growth conditions using a proteomics approach. Annotation and analysis of the Starkeya novella genome: Starkeya novella is the main model organism used ini my group for the elucidation of sulfur oxidation pathways and the enzymes involved in them. It is a versatile bacterium that is able to grow by oxidation of sulfur compounds. The genome will enable the first rigorous analysis of the metabolic potential of this organism, which also has been used in industrial applications, and will be invaluable in reanalysing and integrating the wealth of physiological data that exists for this bacterium. (Collaboration w
