Laboratory and Field Evidence for Long-Term Starvation Survival of Microorganisms in Subsurface Terrestrial Environments

Download or read book Laboratory and Field Evidence for Long-Term Starvation Survival of Microorganisms in Subsurface Terrestrial Environments written by and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 15 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: BIOGEOCHEMICAL MODELING OF GROUNDWATER FLOW AND NUTRIENT FLUX IN SUBSURFACE ENVIRONMENTS INDICATES THAT INHABITANT MICROORGANISMS EXPERIENCE SEVERE NUTRIENT LIMITATION. USING LABORATORY AND FIELD METHODS, WE HAVE BEEN TESTING STARVATION SURVIVAL IN SUBSURFACE MICROORGANISMS. IN MICROCOSM EXPERIMENTS, WE HAVE SHOWN THAT STRAINS OF TWO COMMONLY ISOLATED SUBSURFACE GENERA, ARTHROBACTER AND PSEUDOMONAS, ARE ABLE TO MAINTAIN VIABILITY IN LOW-NUTRIENT, NATURAL SUBSURFACE SEDIMENTS FOR OVER ONE YEAR. THESE NON-SPORE-FORMING BACTERIA UNDERGO RAPID INITIAL MINIATURIZATION FOLLOWED BY A STABILIZATION OF CELL SIZE. MEMBRANE LIPID PHOSPHOLIPID FATTY ACID (PLFA) PROFILES OF THE PSEUDOMONAS ARE CONSISTENT WITH ADAPTATION TO NUTRIENT STRESS; ARTHROBACTER APPARENTLY RESPONDS TO NUTRIENT DEPRIVATION WITHOUT ALTERING MEMBRANE PLFA. TO TEST SURVIVABILITY OF MICROORGANISMS OVER A GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE, WE CHARACTERIZED MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES IN A SEQUENCE OF UNSATURATED SEDIMENTS RANGING IN AGE FROM MODEM TO