Achievement

This project included Caroline Rempe, Steven Higgins, Thomas Lane, and Rachel Fovargue. The project targeted the p450nor and nosZ genes, key enzymes of the nitrogen cycle. Primers designed to uncover diversity of these genes are limited to culturable microbes. Since most microbes remain uncultured, we suspect the existence of unidentified variants. The goal is to document untapped sequence diversity by conducting a novel method of metagenomic primer design. We conducted similarity searches with online databases followed by sequence clustering identifying nosZ and p450nor genes based on amino acid identity to validated proteins. Clusters will be used to find more sequences from metageomics datasets to improve primer design. This method will produce primers designed with information extracted from environmental data and will allow identification of undiscovered diversity, which will then lead to more informed global models of nitrogen flux.