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Destroying a greenhouse gas: exploring the biochemistry of bacterial nitrous oxide reduction

  • School:

    Biological Sciences


  • Primary Supervisor:

    Professor David Richardson

  • Co-Supervisors: Dr Andrew Gates and Dr Gary Rowley

Information

  • Start date: October 2013
  • Programme: PhD
  • Mode of Study: Full Time
  • Studentship Length: 3 years

How to Apply

Fees & Funding

  • Funding Status: Directly Funded Project (Students Worldwide)
    Further Details
  • Funding Source: Marie Curie Training Network
  • Funding Conditions:

    Applicants must be eligible to be appointed as an Early Stage Researcher in the UK under the EC Framework 7 Early Stage Training Scheme. This is currently defined as;

    -          Be in the first four years (full time equivalent) of their research careers starting at the date of obtaining a degree formally entitling them to embark on a doctorate in the UK or in the country where they obtained their degree.

    -          Not have or be currently studying towards a PhD.

    Researchers may be either EU citizens or from outside the EU (subject to the UK Border Agency regulations on the Right to Work in the UK), who have spent no more than 12 months out of the 36 months prior to their recruitment resident in the UK.

    Please make sure that you check the mobility criteria of the Marie Curie Initial Training Networks before you apply to ensure that you are eligible: http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/documents/documentation/legal-docs/marie-curie-actions-guide_for_applicants_specific_part_itn_2013_en.pdf

     

  • Fees: Fees Information (Opens in new window)
  • Other Funding Info:

    Salary (living and mobility allowance) will be paid in line with Marie Curie FP7 requirements for Early-Stage Researchers and will be approximately £32,000 per annum (depending upon employer deductions, personal circumstance and exchange rate to be notified by the EC). 

Entry Requirements

  • Acceptable First Degree:

    Biochemistry, Microbiology, Genetics, Chemistry or Environmental Sciences.

  • Minimum Entry Standard: 2.1

Project Description

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is estimated to contribute up to 9% of the global radiative forcing of greenhouse gas emissions. Agriculture accounts for ~70% of anthropogenic atmospheric loading of N2O, which is largely microbial in origin. Understanding the environmental factors that control N2O production and consumption by microbes is a critical and major challenge on the road to developing practical mitigation strategies for N2O emissions. Denitrifying bacteria play an important global role in the synthesis and consumption of N2O, but very little work has been done on studying the regulatory networks that modulate the assembly and activity of the biochemical apparatus that catalyses production and destruction of the greenhouse gas.

Critically, N2O reduction is dependent on the Cu-containing enzyme NosZ. As arable lands become more intensively exploited Cu-deficiency is also becoming a more acute global concern. For example, it was recently estimated that around ~20% of arable lands in Europe are biologically Cu deficient. We have shown that under nitrate-rich, Cu-depleted conditions, denitrifying bacterial cultures release N2O at >100 times the rate of Cu-replete cultures. We have undertaken the first global transcription analysis of a denitrifying respiratory network and this has shown a clear regulation of the nos genes by Cu, which leads to the down-regulation of the NosZ enzyme. From an environmental point of view this is potentially significant because it leads to the emission of N2O. The resulting impact on N2O release is very pronounced with 40% of nitrate input into the system being released as this potent greenhouse gas. The problem of N2O emission by bacteria is recognised globally as a huge environmental issue. In recognition of this a prestigious European Union Marie Curie Training Network Scholarship is available for a PhD programme to study the regulation of nitrous oxide production by copper in a range of bacterial species. The student will be part of the European Nitrous Oxide Research Alliance (NORA). The project will involve work with microbial bioreactors, transcriptomics, proteomics, and modelling.

References

Richardson, D., Felgate, H., Watmough, N., Thomson, A., and Baggs, E. (2009) Mitigating release of the potent greenhouse gas N2O from the nitrogen cycle - could enzymic regulation hold the key? Trends in Biotechnology 27: 388-397.



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