HR: 08:00h
AN: B51D-01    [Abstracts]
TI: Biogeoscience from a Metallomic and Proteomic Perspective
AU: * Anbar, A D
EM: anbar@asu.edu
AF: Dept. of Geological Sciences & Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287
AU: Shock, E
EM: eshock@asu.edu
AF: Dept. of Geological Sciences & Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287
AB: In the wake of the genomics revolution, life scientists are expanding their focus from the genome to the "proteome" - the assemblage of all proteins in a cell - and the "metallome" - the distribution of inorganic species in a cell. The proteome and metallome are tightly connected because proteins and protein products are intimately involved in the transport and homeostasis of inorganic elements, and because many enzymes depend on inorganic elements for catalytic activity. Together, they are at the heart of metabolic function. Unlike the relatively static genome, the proteome and metallome are extremely dynamic, changing rapidly in response to environmental cues. They are substantially more complex than the genome; for example, in humans, some 30,000 genes code for approximately 500,000 proteins. Metaphorically, the proteome and metallome constitute the complex, dynamic "language" by which the genome and the environment communicate. Therefore biogeochemists, like life scientists, are moving beyond a strictly genomic perspective. Research guided by proteomic and metallomic perspectives and methodologies should provide new insights into the connections between life and the inorganic Earth in modern environments, and the evolution of these connections through time. For example, biogeochemical research in modern environments, such as Yellowstone hot springs, is hindered by the gap between genomic determinations of metabolic potential in ecosystems and geochemical characterizations of the energetic boundary conditions faced by these ecosystems; genomics tells us "who is there" and geochemistry tells us "what they might be doing", but neither genomics nor geochemistry easily provide quantitative information about which metabolisms are actually active or a framework for understanding why ecosystems do not fully exploit the energy available in their surroundings. Such questions are fundamentally kinetic rather than thermodynamic and therefore demand that we characterize and understand the proteins and inorganic elements used by organisms to catalyze reactions and capture energy from their surroundings. Similar challenges are faced when attempting to map the evolutionary relationships inferred from phylogenetic analyses of genomes to ecological histories determined by geochemists and paleobiologists - for example, ongoing efforts to understand the evolutionary history of eukaryotes and metazoa - because the driving forces for the evolution and ecological radiation of organisms lie at the intersection of metabolism and environment, and hence in the gap between genomes and geochemistry. Future progress in understanding the biogeochemistry of modern and ancient environments will be spurred by integrating proteomic and metallomic methods and perspectives.
DE: 1030 Geochemical cycles (0330)
DE: 1045 Low-temperature geochemistry
DE: 1065 Trace elements (3670)
DE: 1099 General or miscellaneous
DE: 0400 Biogeosciences
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting