Microbes are everywhere—in humans they protect us from harmful bacteria and help us digest food; in soils, they provide nutrients and encourage growth of plants. Microbes even live in sediments below the seafloor where they play a key role in the underwater ecosystem. Scientists are identifying and characterizing more microbes each year using DNA sequencing technologies. As each new species is sequenced, scientists add it to the microbial “tree of life,” creating a virtual census of what’s there. Turns out it’s not an easy job. To put things in perspective, scientists aren’t sure how many microbes even exist. Estimates vary widely from millions to trillions. University of Delaware professor Jennifer Biddle and Rosa León-Zayas, who completed post-doctoral work at UD earlier this year, recently described new details about microbes known as Parcubacteria in a paper published in Environmental Microbiology [C-DEBI Contribution 369]. The Parcubacteria were found in sediment samples collected by James Cameron within the Challenger Deep region of the Mariana Trench during the Deepsea Challenge Expedition. León-Zayas’ doctoral advisor, Doug Bartlett at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, was a chief scientist on the expedition.
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Featuring C-DEBI researchers Laura Zinke, Jan Amend, Julie Huber, Doug LaRowe and Steve D’Hondt.
Bundled in layers of blankets for warmth, Laura Zinke settled in for a two-hour ride to the bottom of the ocean. The temperature dipped significantly once she and her colleagues passed the depth still touched by sunlight, and it would continue to drop as an engineer maneuvered the Alvin submersible research vessel deeper and deeper toward the seafloor. Through a small porthole, Zinke saw fluorescent creatures flit by.
“Looking out the window was like staring into the night sky, but the stars are moving,” said Zinke, who is working toward her Ph.D. in marine biology and biological oceanography at USC Dornsife.