Monterey Bay transect CN207 sampling sites

Current views of how marine microbial communities function are changing rapidly with the discovery of novel marine microbes and capabilities associated with these organisms. With respect to discoveries from metagenomic sequencing, most have been on microbes within the less than 0.8 micron size fraction. This leaves broad domains of marine microbial life virtually unexplored - including all the microbes in larger size fractions. For example, nitrogen fixing cyanobacteria are known to fall within these larger size fractions and genes/pathways associated with these populations are generally missing from the Global Ocean Survey (GOS) data sets.

This project is based on a collaboration between the Worden lab at MBARI and the Armbrust lab at UW, as well as with George Weinstock (WUSTL Genome Center) and other oceanography groups that became involved in sequence analysis along the way. Much of the environmental metadata comes from collaborations within MBARI between the Worden, Chavez and Johnson labs, and includes high resolution biological-chemical measurements. The project involves sequencing microbes from multiple size fractions along a well characterized transect from Monterey Bay.

If you would like to learn more about this project or participate in analysis of the data please contact Alexandra Worden (azwordenATmbari.org; http://www.mbari.org/staff/azworden/).

Dr. Worden has annotated genes with a PHO4 domain (inorganic phosphate transporter); click here to download the genbank files.