Hot spring in Yellowstone National Parks’ Artist Paint Pot area. (Courtesy of Roland Hatzenpichler)
This project will focus on the unexplored microbial communities in three high-pH geothermal features in Yellowstone National Park. By characterizing the genetic make-up and activity of these heat-loving microbes we will evaluate the impact of these organisms on elemental cycling, characterize how they make a living in these extreme environments, study whether they harbor potential for the biofuel industry, and reveal to what extent cells genetically resemble close relatives living in the same hot spring or similar ones.
Proposer: Roland Hatzenpichler, Montana State University
Proposal: Taxonomic, genomic, metabolic, and functional heterogeneity in Yellowstone geothermal features