The microbiome is everywhere
Microorganisms can be found almost everywhere in the world. They colonize extreme locations such as hot springs in the deep sea, the surface of snow as well as the digestive extracts of animals, the roots of plants and technical systems such as biogas plants or sewage treatment plants. They contribute to biogeochemical processes and are actors in natural material cycles. However, microorganisms are also the cause of diseases. Microorganisms usually live in microbial communities, the microbiome, which is characterized by diverse interactions between microorganisms, but also with their environment such as plants and animals.
For a long time, microbiological research was focused on isolating and describing beneficial and harmful microorganisms from the environment. This work is very valuable, but only provides limited insights into the interactions described. For this reason, the microbiome as a whole is studied today. The metagenome sequencing of a microbiome (metagenome = totality of all genomes of a microbiome) is usually used for this purpose. Such data depict the structural composition and genetic potential of a microbiome, but do not show which genes are actually expressed. Metaproteomics determines the totality of all proteins (metaproteome) and provides important information on the processes actually taking place based on the proteins.
De AG Microbial Communities is mainly concerned with the metaproteomics of microbiomes in technical habitats such as biogas plants, sewage treatment plants or biofilters, but also in biotechnological processes such as algae cultivation. High-resolution mass spectrometry is used for this purpose. In addition, bacteria are isolated from microbiomes and identified using MALDI-TOF.
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