Achievement

IGERT trainee Ryan Jennings and undergraduate research intern Laura Whitmore worked together on the fixation of inorganic carbon dioxide by thermophilic iron-oxidizing organisms important in acidic geothermal springs from Yellowstone National Park. The focus of Ryan’s work is to show uptake of carbon dioxide by Metallosphaera yellowstonensis in laboratory and field environments. Ryan presented his findings at the 22nd International Goldschmidt Geochemistry Conference in Montreal, CANADA (June 24-29), and a manuscript describing these results has been submitted for publication. This collaboration involves interdisciplinary scientists from DOE-Pacific Northwest National Laboratory focused on stable isotope analysis and probing. Consequently, Ryan’s work reflects interdisciplinary synthesis in genomics, geochemistry and isotope fractionation, to show that this autotrophic organism is an important founding member of iron mat microbial communities.