Award Abstract # 2125298
Collaborative Research: MIM: The impact of the fungal microbiome in metal tolerance and soil biogeochemical transformations

NSF Org: EF
Emerging Frontiers
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
Initial Amendment Date: August 13, 2021
Latest Amendment Date: August 13, 2021
Award Number: 2125298
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Sylvia Spengler
sspengle@nsf.gov
 (703)292-7347
EF
 Emerging Frontiers
BIO
 Directorate for Biological Sciences
Start Date: September 1, 2021
End Date: August 31, 2026 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $497,969.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $497,969.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2021 = $497,969.00
History of Investigator:
  • Jose Cerrato (Principal Investigator)
    jcerrato@unm.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of New Mexico
1 UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
ALBUQUERQUE
NM  US  87131-0001
(505)277-4186
Sponsor Congressional District: 01
Primary Place of Performance: University of New Mexico
Albuquerque
NM  US  87131-0001
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
01
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): F6XLTRUQJEN4
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): URoL-Understanding the Rules o
Primary Program Source: 01002122DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 068Z, 9150
Program Element Code(s): 106Y00
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.074

ABSTRACT

Some metals are essential nutrients for life, while some are non-essential or even harmful to living organisms. Fungi and bacteria are microorganisms that often live in a close association and play a key role in transforming and detoxifying metals in the environment. In spite of this importance, there is relatively little understanding of how the interactions between bacteria and fungi influence the transformation and/or detoxification of metals. The goal of this project is to address this knowledge gap by identifying how fungal-bacterial interactions affect metal transformation. This will be achieved through a novel multidisciplinary research approach employing advanced, state-of-the-science analytical techniques. Knowledge gained through this project will allow the engineered control of metal transformations for a wide range of applications in environmental cleanup, biorefining, production of nanoparticles, and other beneficial applications. Successful completion of this research has strong potential to benefit society through improvements in environmental remediation and industrial manufacturing. This project will improve the Nation?s STEM workforce by providing a unique training opportunity for student researchers that bridges diverse fields such as environmental engineering, microbiology, geochemistry, bioinformatics, and art.

Remediation of metal contamination is a major environmental challenge because, unlike many organic pollutants, metal species cannot be degraded and can only be extracted or biotransformed to less toxic forms. While past approaches to biotransform metals have focused primarily on single microorganisms, host-microbiome interactions have shown potential to biotransform surrounding environments and improve host resiliency. However, the mechanisms for metal biotransformation by microbial host-microbiome systems are largely unknown. The overall goal of this project is to elucidate the rules of life that govern fungal microbiomes. This goal will be achieved through a specific focus on fungal microbiomes, which include a fungal host, endosymbionts (endobacteria), and symbionts (exobacteria that live extracellularly) as a model host-microbiome system. The specific research objectives of this project designed to achieve the goal are to: understand the effects of metals and metalloids on the diversity and transmission of fungal microbiomes (facultative and obligatory); and determine the role of fungal microbiomes in metal tolerance by mediating the uptake, transformation, and sorption of metal ions, nanoparticles, or other metal species. A deeply integrated multidisciplinary approach will be used to investigate physiological, genetic/genomic, and metabolic processes that govern the structure and function of fungal microbiomes in the presence of metals. This will be achieved using novel state-of-the-science isotope probing, advanced microscopy, spectroscopy, and integrated genomics, transcriptomics, and metallomics to elucidate how the microbiome influences the metabolic activity of the host towards metal ions. Successful completion of this research has strong potential to identify new genes and/or pathways for metal tolerance and biotransformation, as well as expand our mechanistic understanding of the structure and function of fungal microbiomes in nature. This knowledge has strong potential to benefit society by facilitating applications in remediation, water treatment, electronics manufacturing, antimicrobial production, medicine, and related fields.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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Jemison, Noah Edward and Garzon, Fernando H. and Cabaniss, Stephen E. and Lichtner, Peter C. and Benavidez, Angelica and Jessop, Elijah and Cerrato, José M. "Effect of Organic Compounds and Copper on Chromium(VI) Reduction: Electrochemical Investigation of Electron Transfer Rates" ACS ES&T Water , v.2 , 2022 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestwater.2c00309 Citation Details

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