msi postdoctoral fellow 2007

helen white

Interrogating the Role of Extracellular Electron Transfer in Marine Sediments:
From Phylotype to Function via Community Genomic Analysis

Microbial metabolism involving interactions with solid materials via extracellular electron transfer (EET) plays a key role in environments where diffusion of dissolved ions and volatile compounds is limited, e.g. biofilms, marine sediments or the subsurface biosphere. While the majority of microbes are uncultivable, microbial fuel cells (MFC), which harness energy from microbes that perform EET, are capable of enriching for these uncultivated microorganisms in marine sediments. I propose to conduct community genomic analyses of microbial communities recovered from a field-deployed fuel cell to ally phylogenetic identity with functional potential, and to characterize the extent of EET in marine sediments.

Helen White is a biogeochemist whose research interests are aimed at understanding the sources, sinks and cycling of organic matter in marine sediments. Helen received her Ph.D. in Chemical Oceaonography in 2006 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Joint program. She also received an M. Chem in Chemistry from the University of Sussex, U.K. As part of her doctoral work at WHOI Helen used compound specific radiocarbon andstable carbon analysis of  biomarkers to examine the distribution, chemical associations and overall fate of marine, terrestrial and fossil fuel-derived organic matter in marine sediments.

As an MSI fellow, Helen will work with Peter Girguis (Harvard University Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Department) to examine how energy can be harnessed from the microbial metabolism of carbon in the marine environment. Her work will focus on microbial metabolism involving interactions with solid materials via extracellular electron transfer (EET), which plays a key role in environments where diffusion of dissolved ions and volatile compounds is limited, e.g. biofilms, marine sediments or the subsurface biosphere. While the majority of microbes are uncultivable, microbial fuel cells (MFC), which harness energy from microbes that perform EET, are capable of enriching for these uncultivated microorganisms in marine sediments.

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