Institute of Marine & Coastal Sciences
71 Dudley Road
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
(732) 932-6555 x 373
Fax: (732) 932-6557
vetriani@imcs.rutgers.eduAssociate Professor
Ph.D. Molecular Biology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy, 1994
M.S., Microbiology, University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome, Italy, 1990
Deep-Sea microbiology, extremophiles, molecular ecology, adaptations to extreme environments Research in my laboratory is focused on: i) the diversity, ecology and evolutionary relationships of deep-sea prokaryotes, with an emphasis on deep-sea hydrothermal vents and cold seeps, and ii) the microbial adaptations to extreme environmental conditions (e.g., thermophily, psychrophily). More specifically, we work on the isolation and characterization of novel organisms from deep-sea environments, with an emphasis on thermophilic Archaea and Bacteria, and we look at community dynamics along chemical and physical gradients at deep-sea vents and cold seeps. Our experimental strategies include standard approaches in marine microbiology, such as enrichment cultures/isolations, and molecular ecological approaches, such as PCR, library construction and screening, sequencing, DGGE, and FISH. Furthermore, in collaboration with biochemists, we use genetic engineering and biochemical approaches, combined with comparative protein structure modeling, to study the evolutionary adaptive features that allow microorganisms to thrive in the extreme environmental conditions found in the deep-sea (e.g., extremely high temperature found at deep-sea vents). We believe that the integration of multiple approaches is critical to understand the ecology and evolution of deep-sea microorganisms.
Recent publications
Reed, A. J., Dorn, R., Van Dover, C. L., Lutz, R. A. and Vetriani, C. (2009). Phylogenetic diversity of methanogenic, sulfate-reducing and methanotrophic prokaryotes from deep-sea hydrothermal vents and cold seeps. Deep-Sea Research II 56: 1665-1674.
Andrianasolo, E., Haramaty, L., Rosario-Passapera, R., Bidle, K., White, E., Vetriani, C., Falkowski, P., Lutz, R. (2009). Ammonificin A and B, hydroxyethylamine chroman derivatives with antimicrobial and apoptosis-induction activities from a cultured marine hydrothermal vent bacterium, Thermovibrio ammonificans. J. Nat. Prod. 72:1216-1219.
Crespo-Medina, M., Chatziefthimiou, A., Cruz-Matos R., Perez-Rodriguez, I., Barkay, T., Lutz, R. A., Starovoytov, V., and Vetriani, C. (2009). Salinisphaera hydrothermalis sp. nov, a mesophilic, halotolerant, facultative autotrophic, thiosulfate oxidizing “gammaproteobacterium” from deep-sea hydrothermal vents, and emended description of the genus Salinisphaera. Intl. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 59:1480-1486.
Sherman, L. Blum, J. D., Nordstrom, D. J., McCleskey, R. B., Barkay, T. and Vetriani, C. (2009). Mercury isotopic composition of hydrothermal systems in the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field and Guaymas Basin sea-floor rift. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 279:86-96.
Crespo-Medina, M., Chatziefthimiou, A.D., Bloom, N.S., Luther, G.W, Wright, D.D., Reinfelder, J.R., Vetriani, C., and Barkay, T. (2009). Adaptation of Chemosynthetic Bacteria to Elevated Mercury Concentrations in Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents. Limnol. Ocean. 54:41-49.
Voordeckers, J.W., Do, M., Hügler, M., Ko, V., Sievert, S.M., and Vetriani, C. (2008). Culture dependent and independent analyses of 16S rRNA and ATP citrate lyase genes: a comparison of microbial communities from different black smoker chimneys on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Extremophiles 5:627-640 .
