Project 121: Phyllo Sphere Microbial Communities in the Shanghai Region: Responses to Typical Tree Species and Urban-Rural Gradient
Contact Information:
Assoc. Prof. Nan Hui
Email: nan.hui@sjtu.edu.cn
Project Description and Objectives:
Tree phyllo sphere serves as an independent micro-environment, providing a habitat for microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, and archaea. In the field of urban ecology, phyllo sphere microbial community diversity and composition draw increasing attention. These microorganisms not only contribute to plant growth, metabolism, and protect their hosts from pathogenies, but also are responsible for many ecosystem services and functions in an urban environment, such as degrading and adsorbing atmosphere pollutants, maintaining biodiversity, etc. However, our current understanding of phyllo sphere microbes among different tree species remains relatively poor in urban areas. To screen phyllo sphere bacterial and fungal communities in high resolution, we will employ high-throughput DNA sequencing and characterize 16s (bacteria) and ITS (fungi) ribosomal rRNA gene. We will also quantify microbial population based on the same ribosomal gene utilizing qPCR. Our results will provide city managers with insights in tree selection in urban green space development, which may improve the efficiency of atmosphere pollutant degradation.
Eligibility Requirements:
Interests in academic work.
Basics in molecular technology, ecology and statistics.
Good communication skills in English.
Main Tasks:
Tree leaf sampling and physical-chemical analyses.
Total DNA extraction, ribosomal rRNA gene amplification, qPCR and Ilumina Miseq sequencing.
Bioinformatics and statistical analysis – introduction to R., mothur and JMP.
Website: