(8-21 september 2009)
MAMBA aims & objectives
MAMBA stands for "Marine Metagenomics for New Biotechnological Applications", a small collaborative project to mine for and use of new microbial activities, in particular for targeted production of fine chemicals, antioxidants and anti-cancer drugs. This Project builds up on the previous efforts of European Framework Programs and National research initiatives for exploiting the catalytic activities of marine microorganisms and microbial communities and to gain the new knowledge on the mechanisms of survival of living organisms in extreme environments. The three major objectives of this project therefore will be:(1) to build up a consortium encompassing: (a) the state-of-the-art facilities and expertise to sample unique and hardly accessible marine environments, (ii) advanced technology for construction of metagenomic libraries, (iii) modern sequencing, sequence annotation and the cutting-edge bioinformatics resources, (iv) high-end activity screening technology, (v) world-class protein crystallization and structural analysis facilities and (vi) companies with solid market positions in biocatalysis, drug discovery and cosmetics production.
(2) to deliver a series of new biocatalytic processes, new lead products with anti-tumor activities and new solutes and antioxidant compounds within the project timeframe.
(3) to reveal the new mechanisms of the functioning of extreme marine microbial consortia, their contribution to the global element cycling and possible impact of their activities on the global climate patterns, and, not least, the genomic basis of niche specificities that allow microbes to thrive in the extreme marine environments.
MAMBA & MIDDLE 2009 team
The participant of sea experiment: Michail Yakimov (IAMC-CNR Messina, Chief of Expedition); Violetta La Cono, Luis Monticelli (IAMC-CNR Messina); Giovanni Bortoluzzi (ISMAR-CNR Bologna); Mireno Borghini, Francesca Polonelli (ISMAR-CNR La Spezia); Stephane L’Haridon, Laurent Toffin (IFREMER); Maurilio Galletta, Gioacchino Ruggeri, Francesco Smedile (University of Messina); Matthias Engel, Sabine Filker (Technische Universitat Kaiserslautern); Julio Espinoza, Matthew Knatz (University of Arizona); Marco Taborda (University of Coimbra); Vladik Slepak (University of Miami); Sharon Cheryl, Elizabeth Edwards (University of Toronto).
On board activities
Major tasks of the cruise are been:1. to collect and concentrate some thousand l of brine of Atlante basin for consequent DNA extraction and large-insert library production;
2. to set a series of cultures for stable isotope probing and enrichments with 13C stable isotopes from the brine samples;
3. to do the same for interface samples and superficial seawater.
During the 13 days of cruise MAMBA & MIDDLE 09, planned on the results achieved by cruise R/V Urania on same area in late 2008, we are obtained: the successful sampling of thalassic and athalassic brines and of ovelying waters in 17 stations, including very accurate definition of the brine/sea water interface; sampling of the sea bottom on 15 stations, 14 anoxic and 1 oxic environments; 750 Km of high resolution SBP profiles, that were useful for the detection of the brine interface and their mapping.