Heidi Aronson, PhD

Bioplastic Production Potential of Azospira suillum PS: Growth-Associated PHB Production Under Aerobic and Anaerobic Conditions https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.12.688118v1

Carbon monoxide-driven proton respiration enables facultative anaerobes to survive electron acceptor limitation www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs

Integrative Thermodynamics Strategies in Microbial Metabolism www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs

Methanotrophy Under Extreme Alkalinity in a Serpentinizing System www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs

Microbial exoenzymes catalyzed the transition to an oxygenated Earth #USC_MEB #jcampubs www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Tectonic setting shapes microbial biosynthetic potential across global geothermal environments www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs

Testing the priming effect in the deep ocean: are microorganisms too starved to consume recalcitrant organic carbon? journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.... #jcampubs 🌊

Interspecies electron transfer as one of key drivers of methanogenic consortia succession within quorum sensing regulation academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a... #jcampubs

Microbial ecology of acidic, biogenic gypsum: community structure and distribution of extremophiles on freshly formed and relict sulfate deposits in a hydrogen sulfide-rich cave journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.... #jcampubs

Great new trait of #Methanoperedens archaea: Carbon monoxide metabolism in freshwater anaerobic #methanotrophic archaea #aom #anme
Egas @cuwelte.bsky.social et al #microbiology @ribesresearch.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Tectonic setting shapes microbial biosynthetic potential across global geothermal environments https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.14.675129v1

Methanotrophy Under Extreme Alkalinity in a Serpentinizing System https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.12.675893v1

Microbial exoenzymes catalyzed the transition to an oxygenated Earth Microbial exoenzymes, extracellular enzymes secreted to degrade complex organic polymers, are essential for recycling carbon and nutrients, thus sustaining primary productivity in todays oceans. Yet, ...

🚨New preprint from our lab!🚨

We trace the evolution of microbial exoenzymes and uncover their role in Earth’s oxygenation. By recycling nutrients, exoenzymes helped fuel cyanobacteria and set off feedbacks that sustained the long-term rise of O₂.

#MicroSky 🧪 🦠 🌎

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Assistant Professor in Microbiology APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: CURRENT PENN STATE EMPLOYEE (faculty, staff, technical service, or student), please login to Workday to complete the internal application process. Please do not apply here, a...

🎙️ Job Announcement: Penn State is seeking an ASSISTANT PROFESSOR in MICROBIOLOGY (any subdiscipline) in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Learn more and Join the Microbiome Jubilee: psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/PSU_Ac...

The Pursuit of Life Where It Seems Unimaginable | Quanta Magazine A decade ago, Karen Lloyd discovered single-celled microbes living beneath the seafloor. Now she studies how they can survive in Earth’s crust, possibly for hundreds or thousands of years, and push li...

Great new article about the cool stuff we're finding (improbably) alive deep inside Earth's crust! Nice work, @laurapoppick.bsky.social at @quantamagazine.bsky.social www.quantamagazine.org/the-pursuit-...

Assistant Professor - Plant Resilience to Climate Change - Department of Plant and Microbial Biology University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

Our department (Berkeley PMB) is hiring an asst. prof. in Plant Resilience to Climate Change! aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05049

An updated view of metabolic handoffs in microbiomes From the human gut to the deep ocean, diverse microbial communities underpin essential ecosystem processes. Limited understanding of the dynamics and …

New review paper on metabolic handoffs in microbiomes led by PhD student Katie Klier.

We define major types of metabolic handoffs, examine their drivers and benefits, & describe their importance in different complex microbial systems and environments.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Hey are you looking for a postdoc focusing on microbial
ecology/bioinformatics? Hit me up - it’s not my lab but trying to help someone else staff their lab. If you have a student about to defend, this could be a great chance to get a ton of papers.

Lithosyntrophy: Obligate syntrophy in a phosphite-oxidizing, methanogenic culture www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs

Bringing the uncultivated microbial majority of freshwater ecosystems into culture - Nature Communications A large fraction of aquatic bacteria remains uncultured. Here, the authors cultivated 627 strains of abundant freshwater bacteria from 14 European lakes, thus generating a collection that includes man...

Bringing the uncultivated microbial majority of freshwater ecosystems into culture www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs

Microbial iron oxide respiration coupled to sulfide oxidation - Nature Genomic and biochemical analyses of prokaryotic sulfur metabolism identify diverse microorganisms with the capacity to oxidize sulfide using iron(iii).

📢 New paper in @nature.com

Microbes rock 🎸🤘 with sulfide and iron minerals

I am very excited to share our recent study, which describes a previously unknown microbial energy metabolism ⚡⚡⚡🦠🧫⚡⚡⚡

🆕 Microbial iron oxide respiration coupled to sulfide oxidation - MISO

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Microbial iron oxide respiration coupled to sulfide oxidation - Nature Genomic and biochemical analyses of prokaryotic sulfur metabolism identify diverse microorganisms with the capacity to oxidize sulfide using iron(iii).

Microbial iron oxide respiration coupled to sulfide oxidation www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs

Thanks! Had a lot of fun with the physiology experiments and proteomics. I think FeS2 formation coupled to methanogenesis is a strong contender and I’m curious about the mechanism behind this one. I’m also working on thermodynamic calcs to see if others are possible! www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

Phosphite oxidizers 🤝 Methanogens
In our new paper on “Lithosyntrophy” we show that phosphite oxidation drives methanogenesis through interspecies H2 transfer. Lithosyntrophy establishes a novel mechanistic link between the #phosphorus and carbon redox cycles

Dissolved inorganic carbon supports robust anabolism and methanogenesis in actively serpentinizing rocks Serpentinites, hydrated ultramafic rocks that produce [hyper]alkaline, reducing, H2-rich groundwaters, host subsurface microbial ecosystems. Though in the presence of enormous reducing power, life in ...

Excited to share our pre-print examining microbial activity and carbon utilization in the serpentinizing subsurface! Tl;dr: Serpentinite-hosted microbes are notably active, thriving on DIC despite alkalinity. Implications for #astrobiology, #carboncapture, and #GeoH2!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Dissolved inorganic carbon supports robust anabolism and methanogenesis in actively serpentinizing rocks www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs

Modulation of methyl–coenzyme M reductase expression alters the isotopic composition of microbial methane The stable isotopic composition of microbial methane varies substantially, and the underlying causes are debated. In this work, we experimentally controlled the abundance of the central enzyme in meth...

Our story about microbial methane is out! We found that reducing the expression of a key gene of methanogenesis modulates the isotopic composition of the methane:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Check out also the coverage at the UC Berkeley News website:
news.berkeley.edu/2025/08/14/s...

Functional genomic signatures predict microbial culturability across the tree of life #USC_MEB #USC_earth #jcampubs www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The emergence of metabolisms through Earth history and implications for biospheric evolution royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.... #jcampubs

First isolation of a methanotrophic Mycobacterium reveals ammonia- and pH-tolerant methane oxidation | Applied and Environmental Microbiology Methane is a significant contributor to climate change (27 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide), and the largest biological sink is methane-oxidizing bacteria: methanotrophs. Alt...

“Isolation of a new methanotroph belonging to Mycobacterium” is now out! Awesome work by my former postdoc Hiromi Kambara, who led this project all the way.
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...