Project highlights
- Novel microbial metabolites in the oceans
- World-leading supervisory team on marine microbiology and ecology
- Unique opportunity to study marine microbes at both Birmingham and Plymouth.
Overview
Marine roseobacter clade bacteria play important roles in the global carbon, nitrogen and sulfur cycles (Buchan et al., 2014). For example, they are involved in the formation and consumption of the climate-active gases- methylated amines. These bacteria have the remarkable flexibility in their metabolism and their success in the colonising global oceans can be at least partially attributed to their ability to adapt to oligotrophic surface marine waters. In doing so, these bacteria use membrane lipid remodelling strategy whereby membrane phospholipids are replaced with non-phosphorus surrogate lipids in order to reduce their cellular phosphorus quota (Sebastian et al., 2016).
We have previously characterized one such surrogate lipid, the sulfur containing cysteinolides lipids in marine bacteria (Smith et al., 2021; Guillonneau et a., 2022; Roman et al., 2024). Although this lipid appears widely distributed in the oceans, their biosynthesis pathways and the physiological role of these lipids in marine microbes remain unestablished.
Here in this project, we will combine laboratory and microcosm studies to fully uncover its biosynthes and the role of this lipid in bacteria.
Firstly, we aim to establish a high throughput workflow for producing transposon mutant libraries which will be subject to HPLC-MS based screening for genes involved in cysteinolides synthesis. This will involve producing a transposon library in representative marine roseobacter strains.
Secondly, we aim to uncover the physiological role of this lipid using comparative proteomics. We will use mutant that is unable to produce this lipid and challenge the wild type bacterial strains and mutants in various experimental conditions in order to test the fitness of these strains, hence the role of cysteinolides in their physiology.
Host
University of BirminghamTheme
- Organisms and Ecosystems
Supervisors
Project investigator
- Yin Chen (Professor, UoB, [email protected] )
Co-investigators
- Michaela Mausz (Assistant Professor, University of Warwick, [email protected])
- Katherine Helliwell (Marine Biological Association , [email protected] )
How to apply
- Each host has a slightly different application process.
Find out how to apply for this studentship. - All applications must include the CENTA application form. Choose your application route
Methodology
Microbial lipids identification will be carried out by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS).
Comparative proteomics will be carried out using in house mass spectrometry facilities at Birmingham.
Nutrients and key intermediates in lipid synthesis pathways will be analysed by established chromatography techniques, such as ion-exchange chromatography and gas chromatography, and analysis guided by our previous extensive characterisation of laboratory strains.
Transposon libraries will be produced using Tn5 based transposons.
Training and skills
DRs will be awarded CENTA Training Credits (CTCs) for participation in CENTA-provided and ‘free choice’ external training. One CTC can be earned per 3 hours training, and DRs must accrue 100 CTCs across the three and a half years of their PhD.
The Supervisory team has an excellent record in PhD supervision. 12 PhD students have graduated from Chen’s group to date, all of whom have published at least two papers in high profile journals (PNAS) or leading journals of the discipline (ISME J). This exciting project provides cutting-edge training on contemporary omics approaches, including lipidomics, proteomics and metagenomics. It will also provide excellent training in wider aspects of marine microbiology, biogeochemistry and molecular biology using cutting edge molecular ecology techniques as well as in a variety of analytical techniques currently available at Birmingham, Warwick and the Marine Biological Association, Plymouth.
Partners and collaboration
The supervisors are world-leading experts in marine microbiology and publish regularly on high profile interdisciplinary journals (e.g. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Current Biology) and field specific high impact journals (e.g. The ISME Journal). They have complementary expertise in marine microbiology and biogeochemical cycles. Current research in the groups is well-funded by NERC, the Leverhulme trust and The European Union. Further details on their research activities and their group members can be found via the links below.
Prof Yin Chen www.yinchenlab.org
Dr. Michaela Mausz http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/lifesci/people/dscanlan https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/lifesci/people/mmausz/
Dr. Katherine Helliwell https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=0K3xhvoAAAAJ&hl=en
The student will also have access to research resources available at the Marine Biological Association including the Plymouth Culture Collection, and seawater samples.
Further details
Informal enquires can be made to Prof Yin Chen ([email protected])
To apply to this project:
- You must include a CENTA studentship application form, downloadable from: CENTA Studentship Application Form 2025.
- You must include a CV with the names of at least two referees (preferably three) who can comment on your academic abilities.
- Please submit your application and complete the host institution application process via: https://sits.bham.ac.uk/lpages/LES068.htm. Please select the PhD Bioscience (CENTA) 2025/26 Apply Now button. The CENTA Studentship Application Form 2025 and CV can be uploaded to the Application Information section of the online form. Please quote CENTA 2025-B5 when completing the application form.
Applications must be submitted by 23:59 GMT on Wednesday 8th January 2025.
Possible timeline
Year 1
Transposon library preparation in representative marine roseobacter strains
Year 2
Mass spectrometry-based identification of bacterial lipids in mutants (lipidomics).
Year 3
Lipidomics and proteomics analyses of wild-type bacteria and mutants that do not produce this lipid (lipidomics and proteomics).
Further reading
Buchan A, LeCleir GR, Gulvik CA, González JM. 2014 Master recyclers: features and functions of bacteria associated with phytoplankton blooms. Nat Rev Microbiol. 12(10):686-98.
Sebastián M, Smith AF, González JM, Fredricks HF, Van Mooy B, Koblížek M, Brandsma J, Koster G, Mestre M, Mostajir B, Pitta P, Postle AD, Sánchez P, Gasol JM, Scanlan DJ, Chen Y. 2016 Lipid remodelling is a widespread strategy in marine heterotrophic bacteria upon phosphorus deficiency. ISME J. 10(4):968-78.
R Guillonneau, ARJ Murphy, ZJ Teng, P Wang, YZ Zhang, DJ Scanlan, Chen Y (2022) Trade-offs of lipid remodeling in a marine predator–prey interaction in response to phosphorus limitation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119 (36), e2203057119
Roman D, Meisinger P, Guillonneau R, Peng CC, Peltner LK, Jordan PM, Haensch V, Götze S, Werz O, Hertweck C, Chen Y, Beemelmanns C. 2024 Structure Revision of a Widespread Marine Sulfonolipid Class Based on Isolation and Total Synthesis. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 63(23):e202401195.
Smith AF, Silvano E, Päuker O, Guillonneau R, Quareshy M, Murphy A, Mausz MA, Stirrup R, Rihtman B, Aguilo-Ferretjans M, Brandsma J, Petersen J, Scanlan DJ, Chen Y. 2021 A novel class of sulfur-containing aminolipids widespread in marine roseobacters. ISME J. 15(8):2440-2453.