Abstract:
The availability of energy is one of the key factors affecting the habitat use, survival, and growth of life and even its origin. Despite the lack of energy directly from the Sun, deep marine sediments are populated by vast microbial communities that harness chemical reactions and persist down to a few km below the seafloor. A better understanding of the energetic constraints on the ability of survival and growth of microbes gives us a new insight into the life on Earth before the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis.
This talk highlights two lines of my theoretical research based on thermodynamics and population dynamics modeling both of which aim a better understanding of microbial life under metabolic energy constraints. The first evaluates the ability of growth or survival of specific metabolic types in a target environment (e.g., aerobic methanotrophic metabolism in the Martian surface regolith) based on a thermodynamic assessment. The second uses a conceptual population dynamics model illustrating the key concepts of life and energy to understand the benefit of symbiosis (a mutualistic metabolic interaction) in terms of the stable existence, fitness, and ecosystem expansion. I will also introduce some further ideas that would help us to understand the coevolution of microbial metabolism and the surrounding environments.
Speaker: Dr. Mayumi Seto, Nara Women's University
Date: Tuesday, 18 February, 10:00-11:00 at Mishima Hall
Host: Shawn McGlynn
The availability of energy is one of the key factors affecting the habitat use, survival, and growth of life and even its origin. Despite the lack of energy directly from the Sun, deep marine sediments are populated by vast microbial communities that harness chemical reactions and persist down to a few km below the seafloor. A better understanding of the energetic constraints on the ability of survival and growth of microbes gives us a new insight into the life on Earth before the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis.
This talk highlights two lines of my theoretical research based on thermodynamics and population dynamics modeling both of which aim a better understanding of microbial life under metabolic energy constraints. The first evaluates the ability of growth or survival of specific metabolic types in a target environment (e.g., aerobic methanotrophic metabolism in the Martian surface regolith) based on a thermodynamic assessment. The second uses a conceptual population dynamics model illustrating the key concepts of life and energy to understand the benefit of symbiosis (a mutualistic metabolic interaction) in terms of the stable existence, fitness, and ecosystem expansion. I will also introduce some further ideas that would help us to understand the coevolution of microbial metabolism and the surrounding environments.
Speaker: Dr. Mayumi Seto, Nara Women's University
Date: Tuesday, 18 February, 10:00-11:00 at Mishima Hall
Host: Shawn McGlynn
