Oct 1, The lab is awarded a $1M grant by the DOE BER and EPSCoR programs to study Methanomethylicia in diverse anoxic ecosystems. Our research will take us from hot springs to soil, from waste water to cow rumen, from marine sediments to bioreactors. The grant will fund the PhDs of Joelie and Nicole as well as the work of staff scientist Zack Jay.
This study describes the cultivation and physiology of a thermophilic methanol-reducing methanogen affiliated with the archaeal class Korarchaeia. Together with our other publication (see below) this study shows that methanogenesis is not restricted to the superphylum Euryarchaeota. The latter had been known to host all methanogens since the discovery of the archaeal domain by Carl Woese in the 1970ies.
MSU news story covering our research
This week in Microbiology podcast covers our work: audio here; video here
This study demonstrates, for the first time, that methanogenesis is not confined to the Euryarchaeota. Anthony cultured a thermophilic archaeon from the phylum Thermoproteota (TACK superphylum) from a Yellowstone hot spring and demonstrated that it is a bona fide methanogen. CryoET work with the lab of Martin Pilhofer revealed the methanogen's unique ultrastructure, including cell-to-cell bridges through which cells share their cytoplasm.
MSU news story covering our research
This week in Microbiology podcast covers our work: audio here; video here
Jul 20, Out in PLoS Biology: George's Opus Magnum Multicellular magnetotactic bacterial consortia are metabolically differentiated and not clonal. We studied the unique biology of multicellular magnetotactic bacteria, the only example of bacteria without a unicellular stage in their life cycle! Editor' Choice Paper for 2024 PDF
Mar 19, Out in The ISME J: Methylotrophic methanogenesis in the Archaeoglobi: Cultivation of Ca. Methanoglobus hypatiae from a Yellowstone hot spring. Congrats Mack on a great piece of work that combines targeted cultivation, growth experiments, fluorescence and electron microscopy, stable isotope tracing, metagenomics, and metatranscriptomics! PDF
Jan 10, George succesfully defends his PhD thesis. Congratulations Dr. Schaible!
George will start a postdoctoral position in the lab of Jean-Marie Volland at UC Santa Barbara in June 2024.
Sep 6, New paper on the effects of spartina grass and diesel fuel addition to a salt marsh microbiome's activity is published in Frontiers in Microbiology. Congrats Erin Frates from Jeff Marlow's lab and former postdoc in our lab, Rachel Spietz, who share first authorship! PDF
Jul 20, Roland is elected to co-vice-chair the GRC Applied and Environmental Microbiology meeting in 2025 together with Thulani Makhalanyane. Chair of this GRC will be Denise Akob. Thulani and Roland will then co-chair the meeting in 2027.
Hatzenpichler Environmental Microbiology Lab
99% of microbes currently cannot be grown in the lab. We seek to understand what this "uncultured majority" is doing and how its activity shapes Earth's biogeochemical cycles and life on our planet.
Recent and selected past events
Recent and upcoming research presentations
If you are a highly motivated prospective grad student or postdoc candidate, please contact Roland by email. Prospective graduate students interested in environmental microbiology or astrobiologycan can join us
via the Chem-Biochem, Microbiology and Cell Biology, or the Molecular BioSciences Program.