Why Sequence Starkeya novella?
In the context of global warming, understanding how ecosystems contribute to the cycling of carbon compounds and how these systems will react to changing climatic conditions is becoming more and more important. At present, knowledge about the microbial contributions to carbon and sulfur transformations, especially in terrestrial ecosystems, is limited. While tallying up contributions to carbon sequestration or cycling is relatively easy for bacteria that must metabolize either inorganic compounds (autotrophic bacteria) or organic compounds (heterotrophic bacteria), the situation becomes much more complex when the heterotrophic lifestyle is merely an alternative (facultative heterotrophs). This group of microorganisms has the potential to either consume carbon dioxide or to produce it, and it is often unknown what triggers the conversion between the two types of carbon metabolism or how they are linked to the metabolic conversion of other compounds. Photo Courtesy Rick Webb, Univ. of Qu
