Giovannoni Lab, Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University

WELCOME
to the website of Stephen Giovannoni's laboratory
in the Department of Microbiology at Oregon State University

**NOTICE**

Funding is available for a post-doctoral researcher to study microbial cultivation, bioinformatics, and metabolic modeling. For application information, follow this link.

Dr. Stephen Giovannoni, an avid surfer, has long been fascinated by ocean ecology. This fascination led to a scientific career pursuing the ecological role of bacterioplankton in the ocean's surface. Initially, the laboratory identified the major prokaryotic groups inhabiting this niche and, more recently, has cultivated individual species to explore the cellular adaptations that allow these organisms to affect biogeochemical cycles, especially carbon cycling.

Steve Giovannoni's laboratory is located at Oregon State University, a state supported institution with over 15,000 undergraduates. It is one of six universities in the nation to be designated a land, sea, and space grant institution. Oregon State University is awarded over $150 million annually for research, ranking it among an elite group of research universities nationally. Dr. Giovannoni teaches graduate and undergraduate courses, as well as providing undergraduate research training opportunities. In addition, Dr. Giovannoni's research was featured in a segment of the PBS series "Intimate Strangers: Unseen Life on Earth" broadcast in 1999. The work-in-progress described in this film eventually succeeded resulting in two publications in Nature, Rappe, et al. and Morris, et al., and one publication in Science, Giovannoni, et al.

Research Directions

Steve Giovannoni contemplates a drop of seawater, which contains approximately one million bacterial cells. (Photo by Lynn Ketchum, OSU EESC)

Bacterioplankton (planktonic marine bacteria) are among the most numerically abundant organisms on earth, yet, until a decade ago, they had not been identified. To solve this problem, we used 16S ribosomal RNA genes as genetic markers to map the diversity of uncultivated prokaryotes from natural plankton populations. This investigation involved gene cloning, DNA sequencing, and applications of molecular evolution theory and methods.

Our work led to the discovery of many groups of marine bacteria, the most well known of which is the SAR11 clade.

The data from our studies was used to design DNA probes for routine microbial detection, and the probes were experimentally integrated into the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series Study (BATS) to provide long-term data about the large populations of marine bacteria that are found in the ocean surface layer.

Our experiments led to the discovery and first cultivation of SAR11, now named Pelagibacter.

To better understand how these organisms are operating in the ocean surface layer, we are developing new approaches for culturing and identifying planktonic microorganisms at very low cell densities so that they can be studied in a laboratory setting. Our experiments led to the first cultivation of many marine bacteria, including SAR11, which has now been named Pelagibacter.

Our current efforts are focused on understanding the specific biochemical mechanisms that allow Pelagibacter and other species to cycle carbon in the vast oceanic environment. Our work is supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the National Science Foundation (grant no. 0237713), the Oregon Sea Grant, and the Murdock Charitable trust. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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We wish to thank Ute Vergin for site design and photo editing.