The Arctic stores massive amounts of carbon, which is important for stabilizing the global climate. Half of this carbon comes from feather mosses, like Hylocomium splendens. The growth of mosses and other Arctic plants is limited by a lack of nitrogen. Remarkably, mosses host microbes that are capable of providing them with the necessary nitrogen. In exchange, the mosses supplement the microbe’s energy stores. Here we plan to use genomics and metabolomics to test the role of sulfur containing compounds in mediating this globally important mutualism.
Proposer: Stuart McDaniel, University of Florida
Proposal: The metabolic basis of bryophyte-microorganism interactions