Integrative Graduate
Education and
Research Traineeship

Highlight

Microbial Systems Biology

Conceptual model of simple cyanobacterial microbial mat community

Projects:

IGERT: Geobiological Systems Science: Providing...

Institution:

Montana State University

Primary Strategic Goal:

Learning: Build the Nation's research capability through critical investments in advanced instrumentation, facilities, cyber infrastructure, and experimental tools.

Secondary Strategic Goal:

Discovery: Foster research that will advance the frontiers of knowledge, emphasizing areas of greatest opportunity and potential benefit and establishing the Nation as a global leader in fundamental transformational science and engineering.

Achievement/Results

The IGERT Systems Biology core course (6 credits, one year) aims to engage students in formal interdisciplinary training and practicum focused on microbial community interactions. During the last academic year, a manuscript was completed and submitted with all first-year IGERT students as co-authors as well as several IGERT faculty. This group effort culminated a year-long academic exercise designed to dissect the interdisciplinary contributions necessary for understanding microbial community structure and function. The project focused on a simple thermophilic cyanobacterial mat community, which was represented with four interacting organisms (Figure 1). Genomic based pathway reconstruction and physiological data were used to constrain assumptions and three approaches to organism interaction were evaluated. Results clearly demonstrate the utility of network modeling as a tool for evaluating and testing hypotheses pertinent to microbial ecology and community structure-function.

Address Goals

We believe one of the key elements to the development of an organized training program is the engagement in programmatic activities. By definition, this means working together and contributing to common goals. Achieving productive outcomes as a team also builds individual capacity. The modeling exercise devoted to dissection of a relatively simple cyanobacterial microbial mat provided one mechanism for this process to occur.