Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Our NSERC Discovery program has revolved around Sinorhizobium meliloti, the nitrogen fixing symbiont of alfalfa, since 1995. This has served as the foundation for all other work in our lab. With this proposal, we are continuing to work in S. meliloti, investigating genetic control of root nodule infection, and also regulatory links between metabolism of PHB, which is the major intracellular carbon store, and nitrogen metabolism. We will also extend our research to another member of the order Rhizobiales, Methylosinus trichosporium strain OB3b, which we started working on a few years ago. This strain is a methanotroph, which has a restricted carbon utilization capability, limited to C1 compounds such as methane and methanol. We will investigate the role of PHB in methanotrophic growth, and initiate research towards defining the minimal methanotrophic genome. The work in M. trichosporium will result in the development and refinement of genome engineering methods for this important methanotroph, pave the way for development of specialized strains for the conversion of methane to high value bioproducts, and provide insight into the genetic and metabolic requirements for methanotrophy.