KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 6, 2017 \u2013 Two 溏心vlog免费B站 researchers have created the first computer model of a deep-sea bacterium, providing insight into how marine organisms have adapted to survive in low-temperature and high-pressure environments.<\/p>\n
Ying Zhang, 溏心vlog免费B站 assistant professor of molecular biology, and doctoral student Keith Dufault-Thompson of Lincoln, created the model of Shewanella piezotolerans <\/em>WP3, often called WP3, a bacterial species found on the sea floor in the western Pacific Ocean. Their research was published last month by the American Society for Microbiology in the journal mSystems<\/em>.<\/p>\n Zhang said their research aims to make sense of the biochemical pathways and networks found in every genome. \u201cThese networks represent the utilization of nutrients, and due to their complexity, they often look like a big \u2018hairball\u2019 of connected dots. We want to understand how the \u2018hairball\u2019 evolves and how it relates to the activities of different organisms,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In the case of WP3, the model created by Zhang and Dufault-Thompson simulates the metabolic activities of the bacterium.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of research has been conducted on related species that are found in lake water or in the upper ocean, but the more cold-adapted and pressure-adapted species has been harder to study, harder to grow in the laboratory,\u201d explained Dufault-Thompson, the first author on the study. \u201cBy starting with a model and combining it with future experimental work, we can start to see the differences in the two groups.\u201d<\/p>\n Their findings so far \u2013 which were verified by laboratory studies at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China \u2013 have been somewhat surprising.<\/p>\n \u201cOne very cool feature of Shewanella<\/em> species is that they can live without oxygen,\u201d said Zhang. \u201cInstead, they can breathe metals, including uranium, and other organic and inorganic materials.\u201d<\/p>\n The researchers demonstrated through modeling, however, that the organism\u2019s anaerobic breathing is not used for producing energy like in other organisms.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough they do breathe, their use of the pathway is atypical compared to other known species that breathe in anaerobic conditions,\u201d Zhang said. They believe this process is an ancient feature that evolved in the early ancestors of Shewanella<\/em>.<\/p>\n Based on their computer simulations, Zhang and Dufault-Thompson also found that WP3 has multiple ways of producing the energy it needs to grow. \u201cWe found that it has a little more flexibility in how much and how it\u2019s producing energy compared to other species,\u201d said Dufault-Thompson. \u201cThat might give it a little edge to grow well in the more harsh environment of the deep ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n The researchers say these discoveries emphasize how little is known about the creatures living deep in the oceans, some of which may be beneficial to humans.<\/p>\n \u201cThe deep sea is a very unexplored environment. We simply don\u2019t know much about biodiversity there,\u201d said Zhang. \u201cThere are so many potential resources out there for genes that could be explored in biotechnology. The metabolic diversity of Shewenella<\/em> could make it useful in degrading uranium or other organic wastes in the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere are also environmental implications from what we\u2019re learning about how different organisms adapt to temperature,\u201d added Dufault-Thompson. \u201cBecause ocean temperatures are changing, it\u2019s useful to understand how differences in metabolism could affect different species.\u201d<\/p>\n The next step in their research is to verify other findings predicted by the model.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to investigate more about where Shewenella<\/em> comes from, what makes them so versatile, and what has shaped their metabolic pathways,\u201d Zhang said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 6, 2017 \u2013 Two 溏心vlog免费B站 researchers have created the first computer model of a deep-sea bacterium, providing insight into how marine organisms have adapted to survive in low-temperature and high-pressure environments. Ying Zhang, 溏心vlog免费B站 assistant professor of molecular biology, and doctoral student Keith Dufault-Thompson of Lincoln, created the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}