This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Microbial Biology for FY2003. The fellowship supports training and research on the basic biology of protozoan, microalgal, fungal, archaeal, bacterial and viral species that are not generally considered to be model organisms. Further, it provides opportunities for recent doctoral recipients to obtain additional training in microbial biology, to gain research experience under the sponsorship of established scientists, and to broaden their scientific horizons beyond the research experiences during the undergraduate and graduate training. These fellowships are further designed to assist new scientists to direct their research efforts across traditional disciplinary lines and to avail themselves of unique research resources, sites, and facilities, including foreign locations.
The research and training plan is entitled "Linking community composition and gene expression of bacterial cells to rates of carbon and nutrient cycling in marsh sediments with changing salinity." This research explores bacterial dynamics in marsh sediments as a function of fluctuating salinity. rRNA analysis is being used to analyze community composition and identification of dominant taxa. Concurrently, mRNA analysis is used to determine the expression of key functional genes. This work will link interactions between individual microbial populations to sediment carbon dioxide production and nutrient retention.
