Astrobiology, Extreme Microbes, and Deep Biosphere
Microbial life is awesome in its ability to adapt and live where "normal" life shouldn't. Extremophile microbes exist in various corners of planet Earth's biosphere, including but not limited to the deep-sea and volcanic rocks. Life that exists in the strangest places here on our planet helps to inform Astrobiology topics related to the search for life in the subsurface of Mars, the oceans of icy moons like Enceladus and Europa, and the surface liquid methane pool on Titan.
Exploration of the deep underground and subseafloor biosphere is another scientific frontier, arguable also an extreme environment and astrobiology site analog. Our research explores the diversity and function of life in this environment and elucidates the potential for carbon sequestration, which could significantly impact climate regulation. Further, understanding subsurface ecosystems is vital for assessing the environmental impacts of deep-seafloor mining, and our lab focuses on unlocking these microbial secrets, aiming to inform sustainable practices and contribute to the preservation of deep-sea ecosystems while enhancing our knowledge of Earth's biosphere.
Selected Published Works
Jungbluth SP, ..., Rappé MS. (2013). Microbial diversity within basement fluids of the sediment-buried Juan de Fuca Ridge flank. The ISME Journal, 7(1), 161–172. https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2012.73
Teehera KB, Jungbluth SP, ..., Schorghofer N. (2018). Cryogenic Minerals in Hawaiian Lava Tubes: A Geochemical and Microbiological Exploration. Geomicrobiology Journal, 35(3), 227–241. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490451.2017.1362079
Marlow JJ, ..., Jungbluth SP, ..., Kallmeyer J. (2020). Mapping metabolic activity at single cell resolution in intact volcanic fumarole sediment. FEMS Microbiology Letters, 367(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/femsle/fnaa031
Bowers, RM, ..., Jungbluth SP, ..., Woyke T. (2022). Dissecting the dominant hot spring microbial populations based on community-wide sampling at single-cell genomic resolution. The ISME Journal, 16(5), 1337–1347. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-021-01178-4
Jungbluth SP, ..., Rappé MS (2017). Genomic comparisons of a bacterial lineage that inhabits both marine and terrestrial deep subsurface systems. PeerJ, 5, e3134. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3134
Viruses in the Oceanic Basement
Nigro, OD, Jungbluth, SP, ..., Steward, GF (2017). Viruses in the Oceanic Basement. mBio, 8(2). https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.02129-16