Research with Arlene Haffa

My research program is focused on the molecular mechanisms and evolution of photosynthetic microbes. These microbes are significant ecological players. They exist in diverse and sometimes extreme habitats provided they receive solar irradiation. One marine species, NAP1, has been cultured and was recently sequenced and thus is immediately ready for further exploration using instrumentation in the Proteomics and Functional Genomics Core Facility at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh (UWO). The dissolution of greenhouse gases into the world's oceans is causing them to become acidified, or have a lower pH. Many biological processes, including respiration and photosynthesis, are tuned to function at a particular pH, and the impacts of this pH drop are not well-understood. Since photosynthetic organisms are the basis of all food webs, the first goal will be to determine how the proteome responds to acidification. Another immediate project involves a computational technique I have developed to compare whole genomes, which is providing insight into their evolutionary trajectory. Microbial evolution is interesting for its historical perspective, but pertinent in that it is related to antibiotic resistance, invasive species, and viral impacts on genomes.