Ciência sem Fronteiras (Science Without Borders)
PhD Project Template:
PI name & contact
details:
Department
Has project been agreed
with head (or nominee) of
proposed registration
school?
Dr. Achim Schmalenberger
University of Limerick
Life Sciences
Schrodinger Building
Limerick
Ireland
Achim.schmalenberger@ul.ie
Life Sciences
Yes
Research Centre /
group affiliation:
Research group /
centre website:
PI website / link to CV:
https://sites.google.com/site/environmicro/
http://www2.ul.ie/web/WWW/Faculties/Science_%26_Engineering/Depa
rtments/Life_Sciences/People/Achim%20Schmalenberger
Brief summary of PI research / research group / centre activity (2 or 3 lines max):
1) Microbial driven mobilization of soil nutrients from organic matter e.g. soil sulfur and phosphorus
mobilization, nitrogen fixation and carbon sequestration. 2) Microbial mobilization of nutrients from
primary minerals in rocks. 3) Microbial community analysis using DNA fingerprinting techniques.
Title & brief description of PhD project (suitable for publication on web):
Identification and quantification of microbial mobilization of organically bound sulfur in soils using
stable isotope probing techniques.
Sulfur is a macro-nutrient that is essential for growth and plants need 1-5mg sulfur per gram
biomass. However, most of the sulfur in soils is bound to organic molecules (organo-sulfur) as sulfate
esters and sulfonates. While plants are almost entirely dependent on sulfate, many bacteria and fungi
are capable to mobilize sulfur from sulfate esters, and specific bacterial guilds can utilize sulfonates as
a sulfur source. Previous experiments have shown that the addition of bacteria with the ability to
utilize aromatic sulfonates increased plant growth significantly.
This project is seeking to use stable isotope technology to i) quantify the transfer rates of labelled
sulfur from soil to plants via bacterial activity and to ii) extract bacterial proteins from the rhizosphere
soil in order identify a protein mass shift in peptides from bacteria involved in organo-sulfur
mobilization. Unlike studies with nitrogen, sulphur is not part of the nucleic acid and therefore
Nucleic Acid Stable Isotope Probing (NA-SIP) is not an option to study sulfur cycling. However,
sulfur is a vital part of proteins and therefore a Protein-SIP approach will be established in this project
with partners in Germany leading the field in Sulfur Protein-SIP.
Unique selling points of PhD project in UL:
UL is hosting one of Europe’s leading research groups in bacterial organo-sulfur mobilization and profound
expertise exist in soil microbial molecular microbial analysis. The collaboration partners at the Helmholtz
Centre for Environmental Research in Germany (Leipzig) are a leading group in Protein-SIP. This combination of
expertise is highly beneficial for this cross-disciplinary project.
Name & contact details for project queries, if different from PI named above:
Please indicate the graduates of which disciplines that should apply:
Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Microbiology, Molecular Ecology, Proteomics
Please indicate whether
students can apply for:
Sandwich programme only
Full PhD programme only
X
Either of the above
Ciência sem Fronteiras / Science Without Borders Priority Area:
Please indicate the specific programme priority area under which the proposed PhD project fits- choose only
one (tick box):
Engineering and other technological areas
Pure and Natural Sciences (e.g. mathematics, physics, chemistry)
X
Health and Biomedical Sciences
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)
Aerospace
Pharmaceuticals
Oil, Gas and Coal
Renewable Energy
Minerals
Biotechnology
Nanotechnology and New Materials
Technology of prevention and remediation of natural disasters
Biodiversity and Bioprospection
Marine Sciences
Creative Industry
New technologies in constructive engineering