GIS/Research assistant
> Christopher G. Fox
Chief Scientist of Our Cruise
> Steve Hammond
Marine geophysicist
> Jon Kaye
Microbiologist
> Russell McDuff
Geochemist
> Lauren Mullineaux
Benthic ecologist
> Veronique Robigou
Geologist
> Cindy Lee Van Dover
Biologist and former Pilot
> Dana Yoerger
Head of Navigation
Microbiologist
Graduate student, School of Oceanography, University of Washington
Photo courtesy of Jon Kaye
What are your responsibilities as microbiologist on our cruise?
On cruises I do a variety of things when working with Archaea. (I do other stuff but won't bore you with it!) First and foremost, I enrich for hyperthermohilic Archaea by inoculating certain media with sulfide rocks, warm water samples, animal parts (guts & legs or whatever), and incubating at 90° C (185° F). The media into which I put these bug-containing seafloor vent samples include those for heterotrophic sulfur reducers, iron reducers, and methanogens. All of this work is done in tubes that can be kept free of oxygen.
I can do quantitative enrichments to get a statistically accurate idea of how many of a given organism is present in a given sample.
At sea, I also preserve material for later DNA analysis. Also, I preserve samples in different fixatives to count the total number of bugs in a given sample and/or to do DNA probes. These DNA probes enable us to find out exactly who a given cell is (species on up to domain level).
How did you prepare for this job?
How do I prepare for sea? I have to pack a huge number of 'things,' because once at sea you're screwed if you've forgotten anything (or you just have to come up with creative solutions). There are lots of things-- tubes, tube stoppers, syringes, needles, incubators, tweezers, filters, etc...I essentially bring my entire laboratory-- in a miniaturized version. I also bring junk food because they rarely have any-- just the occasional Snicker's bar. You start to miss those sorts of things after a few weeks.
"The "bug" work I do ranges from low-temperature bacteria to high-temperature archaea...these high-temp bugs get folks excited about the origin of life and extraterrestrial life...the more we know about the vents and associated microbiology, the more we may know about how life evolves/exists on other planets and how it may have originated."
--- Jon Kaye
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