DOE OSTI2018
To provide the scientific understanding required to allow DOE sites to incorporate relevant biological, chemical, and physical processes into decisions concerning environmental remediation, a fundamental understanding of the controls on micro-organism growth in the subsurface is necessary. Specifically, mobility of metals in the environment, including chromium, technetium and uranium, is greatly affected by the process of dissimilatory metal reduction (DMR). DMR has been shown to be an important biological activity controlling contaminant mobility in the subsurface at many DOE sites. Long-term maintenance of DMR at constant rates must rely upon steady fluxes of electron donors to provide the maintenance energy needed by organisms such as Geobacter sulfurreducens to maintain steady state populations in the subsurface. At present, much effort has been put forth to develop biomolecular signatures which inform on the relevant biological processes at DOE field sites. These signatures are also being developed in defined laboratory conditions to which the field data can be compared to. These signatures include metagenomic, metatranscriptomic and proteomic characterization. While the relevant processes involve reduction of metal contaminants, we suggest that the predominant biochemistry that impacts the biomolecular signature is nutrient availability/limitation. As such, the present proposal aims at characterizing the survival strategy of Geobacter and obtaining biomolecular signatures that would reflect on its energy flux status. In addition, we lack the fundamental knowledge needed to answer fundamental questions such as these: What influxes of electron donors are required to maintain a growing versus a non-growing population of Geobacter? How do changes in nutrient availability or other environmental conditions such as pH and ionic strength affect such required electron-donor influxes? How are these electron-donor influxes controlled by availability and nature of electron acceptors? Under survival conditions, where availability of electron acceptors and nutrients are extremely low, what physiological and genetic modifications occur in Geobacter to enable long-term survival? How do these changes affect the required electron-donor influxes? Is it possible to relate the metabolic activities of Geobacter living under survival mode to the required fluxes of electron donors? What conceptual models can be used to predict maintenance energies of Geobacter under different phases of growth when measured under different environmental conditions? How can these models help the DOE predict the long-term evolution of contaminated sites? We outline a strategy to tackle these questions and lay the framework for DOE to make long-term predictions concerning DMR in the subsurface. We will test the following hypothesis: Geobacter requires different fluxes of substrate for metabolism when existing under growth, stationary, or survival modes, and these substrate fluxes can be related to specific metabolic activities utilized under different geochemical conditions. Our project has two specific objectives: i) Determine the survival characteristics of Geobacter under long-term stationary phase by characterize the physiological response of Geobacter in growth, stationary, and survival phases using genomic sequencing, DNA microarray chips and iTRAQ (proteomics) and relate these responses to the measured substrate fluxes; ii) Determination of growth yield and maintenance energy. While site-specific studies are necessary for site-specific remediation, our work will provide the fundamental knowledge necessary for long-term stewardship of all DOE sites where contaminant mobility is affected by dissimilatory metal reduction.
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗