The German Research Foundation has once again granted the University of Oldenburg funding for the "Roseobacter" Collaborative Research Centre. The scientists have already decoded the genomes of 14 organisms of the marine bacteria group - with surprising results.
The German Research Foundation (DFG) is providing the research project - led by Oldenburg marine researcher Prof Dr Meinhard Simon - with 9.2 million euros for the second funding phase until 2017. The Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) with the official title "Ecology, Physiology and Molecular Biology of the Roseobacter Group: Towards a Systems Biological Understanding of a Globally Important Group of Marine Bacteria" focuses on one of the most important groups of marine bacteria. In addition to the University of Oldenburg, the Technical University of Braunschweig, the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, the German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures and the Genome Research Laboratory at the University of Göttingen are also involved in this major project.
"We are delighted with this great success, which we have achieved together with strong partners. It confirms the high performance and quality of Oldenburg's marine research, which contributes significantly to the university's profile - and it spurs us on to further develop this focus," explains University President Prof. Dr Babette Simon.
Microbiologists, natural product chemists, geneticists and computer scientists are involved in the "Roseobacter" Collaborative Research Centre, which was launched in 2010. It pools the existing excellence in the field of marine microbiology in Lower Saxony. "This consortium of scientists has created a centre for marine microbiology in Lower Saxony that is unique in Germany and is now recognised worldwide," emphasises CRC spokesperson Prof. Dr Meinhard Simon.
The bacteria of the Roseobacter group are characterised by an unusually versatile metabolism, which also provides highly interesting substances for biotechnological applications. The scientists in the CRC are studying the evolutionary, genetic and physiological principles and adaptations of these bacteria in order to understand their occurrence in their various habitats - from the equator to the polar regions, in open water, in association with other organisms or in sediment.
Meinhard Simon and his team have already achieved their first research successes. They have decoded the genomes of 14 organisms of the Roseobacter group with some surprising results: the organisms show differences in the genome organisation of the main chromosome and the extrachromosomal elements, the so-called plasmids. Roseobacter bacteria, which live in close association with other organisms, possess up to eleven plasmids, which contain up to a third of the genome information. Roseobacter bacteria that live in the nutrient-poor open water of the oceans, on the other hand, usually contain no plasmids or at most one or two plasmids and have a smaller genome. This highlights the unique adaptations of Roseobacter bacteria to a wide variety of marine habitats. "In the coming years, we will continue and expand these investigations in order to gain an even better understanding of the adaptations and possibly be able to use bacteria from this group - or active substances produced by them - in antifouling processes on surfaces, for example on ships, in aquaculture or even in medicine," says Simon.
In the coming funding period, the members of the Collaborative Research Centre will focus on the occurrence and significance of bacteria from the Roseobacter group in the southwest Pacific, among other things. To this end, research cruises are planned with the new deep-sea research vessel "Sonne", the construction of which is currently being supervised by the Institute of Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM) at the University of Oldenburg. The ICBM will be the home institute of the "Sonne" and its home port is Wilhelmshaven. The research vessel will set sail for the first time in 2015.