Dear all,
You are invited to the talk by Dr. Wi Qin on 21 March 2024 at 3 pm in More Hall Room 110. Title and abstract are displayed below and Dr. Wei’s CV is attached.
Wei Qin
Assistant Professor
School of Biological Sciences, Institute for Environmental Genomics
University of Oklahoma
Title: Unexpected genomic and physiological diversity in ammonia-oxidizing microorganisms
Biography: Wei earned his PhD in Environmental Microbiology under the supervision of Dave Stahl at UW CEE in 2017. Subsequently, he was awarded a Simons Foundation Postdoctoral Scholarship in Marine Microbial Ecology and worked with Anitra Ingalls at the University of Washington School of Oceanography. In 2021, he started his Assistant Professor position in Microbiology at the University of Oklahoma. His research is centered on the ecology, physiology, molecular biology, biogeochemistry, and greenhouse gas emissions of nitrogen cycle microorganisms.
Abstract: Four major and phylogenetically distinct lineages of ammonia-oxidizing microorganisms (AOM): ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA), beta-and gamma-proteobacterial ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (β- and γ-AOB), and complete ammonia oxidizers (comammox), together contribute to one of the largest nitrogen fluxes in the global nitrogen budget. As one of the most ubiquitous and abundant functional guilds, metabolically conserved AOM exhibit remarkable diversity in their genomic features, ecophysiological traits, and regulatory systems, which underpin their adaptation and thriving in a vast range of marine and terrestrial environments. Understanding the fundamental ecophysiology and metabolism of AOM is essential for comprehending the microbial control on nitrogen transformation processes in both engineered and natural ecosystems.
During Dr. Wei’s presentation, he will highlight some of the recent insights we have gained into the adaptive biology of AOM through comprehensive comparative (meta)genomic, kinetic, isotopic, and transcriptomic analyses, covering a wide spectrum of AOM species and natural populations from marine, soil, subsurface, and sponge-associated habitats. Our findings reveal a novel AOA order, abundant in groundwaters, that possesses the genetic capacity to use formate as a source of reductant and to use nitrate as an alternative electron acceptor. This may enable them to survive during periods of ammonia and oxygen deprivation. In addition, we demonstrate that AOA, AOB, and comammox exhibit differential preferences for ammonia and urea, thereby mitigating direct competition with one another and allowing for their coexistence. Our findings provide a new understanding of nitrogen source partitioning among bacterial and archaeal ammonia oxidizers in the environment and should foster improved nitrogen cycle models. Together, these results uncover previously unrecognized genomic and hidden physiological diversity among major AOM lineages.