Kathleen Scott
Kathleen Scott
Assistant Professor
Contact
Office: BSF 0132
Phone: 813/974-5173
Email:
Links
Education
Ph.D. Biology, Penn State at University Park, 1998.
Post Doctoral Fellow, Harvard University.
Research
Microbial physiology and biogeochemistry
Autotrophic microorganisms from all three domains of life (Bacteria, Archaea, and
Eukarya) proliferate under a dizzying array of conditions. These organisms fix carbon
dioxide while growing in more familiar habitats like lakes and oceans, but also
thrive in extreme environments such as terrestrial hot springs, deep-sea hydrothermal
vents and hydrocarbon seeps, acid rock drainage, and the subsurface biosphere.
Added to this breadth in habitats is a breadth in history. The three domains of
life are believed to have originated rather early in Earth history, by 2.7 billion
years ago. Since that time, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has
fallen by nearly three orders of magnitude, while atmospheric oxygen, which inhibits
some carbon fixing enzymes, has risen from nil to its current level of 21% by volume.
My major research question is, how have these organisms adapted to these changes?
How do they fix carbon despite low concentrations of carbon dioxide, and elevated
concentrations of oxygen? Have organisms within Bacteria and Archaea devised many
different mechanisms for coping with these conditions, or did a few efficient methods
(e.g., carbon concentrating mechanisms, carbonic anhydrases) originate fairly early
on and are currently used by phylogenetically broad groups of organisms?
Given that many key autotrophic organisms are uncultivable, it is necessary for
me to use a rather broad arsenal of methods to study them, including molecular tools
and mass spectrometry. Elucidating the answers to the questions I raise above promises
to have a substantial effect on our understanding of geochemical cycles and autotroph
physiology, as well as their response to anthropogenic increases in atmospheric
carbon dioxide.
Current Courses
Recent Publications
Scott K. M., Sievert S. M., Klotz M. G., Bailey K., Chain P. S. G., Diaz E., Fitzpatrick K. A., Glover B., Hauser L. J., Hügler M., Korajkic A., Land M., Lapidus A., Larimer F. W., Long A., Lucas S., Malfatti S. A., Meyer F., Mobberley J. M., Pantry S. N., Paulsen I. T., Pazder G., Peterson S., Quintanilla J. D., Ren Q., Schnitker N., Simon J., Sprinkle R., Stephens J., Thomas P., Vaughn R., Weber M J., and Wooten L. L.. (2007). The genome of epsilonproteobacterial chemolithoautotroph Sulfurimonas denitrificans. In revision.
Scott, K.M., Henn-Sax, M., Longo, D., and Cavanaugh, C.M. (2007) Kinetic isotope effect of RubisCO from marine picophytoplankton. Limnology and Oceanography 52: 2199-2204.
Scott, K.M. and Cavanaugh, C.M. (2007) CO2 uptake and fixation by endosymbiotic chemoautotrophs from the bivalve Solemya velum. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 73: 1174-1179.
Scott K.M., Sievert SM, Abril FN, Ball LA, Barrett CJ, Blake RA, Boller AJ, Chain PS, Clark JA, Davis CR, Detter C, Do KF, Dobrinski KP, Faza BI, Fitzpatrick KA, Freyermuth SK, Harmer TL, Hauser LJ, Hugler M, Kerfeld CA, Kong WW, Land M, Lapidus A, Larimer FW, Longo DL, Lucas S, Malfatti S, Massey SE, Martin DD, McCuddin Z, Meyer F, Moore JL, Ocampo LH, Paul JH, Paulsen IT, Reep DK, Ren Q, Ross RL, Sato PY, Thomas P, Tinkham LE, Zeruth GT (2006) The genome of the deep-sea vent chemolithoautotroph Thiomicrospira crunogena. Plos Biology 4: 1-17.
Dobrinski, K., Longo, D., and Scott, K.M. (2005) A hydrothermal vent chemolithoautotroph with a carbon concentrating mechanism. J. Bact. 187: 5741-5766.
Scott, K.M. (2005) Allometry of gill masses, gill surface areas, and foot biomass d13C values of the chemoautotroph-bivalve symbiosis Solemya velum. Mar. Biol. 147: 935-941.
Scott, K.M., Schwedock, J., Schrag, D. P., and Cavanaugh, C.M. (2004) Kinetic isotope effect of RubisCO from the chemoautotrophic symbionts of Solemya velum. Environ. Microbiol. 6: 1210-1219.
Schwedock, J., Harmer, T.L., Scott, K.M., Hektor, H.J. Seitz, A.P., Fontana, M.C., Distel, D.L., and Cavanaugh, C.M. (2004) Characterization and expression of genes from the RubisCO gene cluster of the chemoautotrophic symbiont of Solemya velum: cbbLSQO. Arch. Microbiol. 182: 18-29.
Scott, K.M., Lu, X., Cavanaugh, C.M., and Liu, J. (2004) Optimal methods for estimating kinetic isotope effects from different forms of the Rayleigh distillation equation. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 68: 433-442.
Scott, K.M. (2003) A d13C-based carbon flux model for the hydrothermal vent chemoautotrophic symbiosis Riftia pachyptila predicts sizeable CO2 gradients at the host-symbiont interface. Environ. Microbiol. 5: 424-432.