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
Chatziefthimiou, A.D., Crespo-Medina, M., Wang, Y., Vetriani, C., and Barkay, T. (2007). The isolation and initial characterization of mercury resistant chemolithotrophic and thermophilic bacteria from mercury rich geothermal springs. Extremophiles 11:469-479.
Hügler, M., Huber, H., Molyneaux, S.J., Vetriani, C., and Sievert, S.M. (2007) Autotrophic CO2 fixation via the reductive tricarboxylic acid cycle in different lineages within the phylum Aquificae: Evidence for two ways of citrate cleavage. Environmental Microbiology 9:81-92.
Reed, A.J., Lutz, R.A., and Vetriani, C. (2006). Vertical Distribution and Diversity of Bacteria and Archaea in Sulfide and Methane-Rich Cold Seep Sediments Located at the Base of the Florida Escarpment. Extremophiles 10:199-211.
Voordeckers, J.W., Starovoytov, V., and Vetriani, C. (2005). Caminibacter mediatlanticus sp. nov., a thermophilic, chemolithoautotrophic, nitrate ammonifying bacterium isolated from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Intl. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 55:773-779.
