Publications by authors named "R Boiteau"
Article Synopsis
- Plant roots and their associated microbes release various exudates that influence soil carbon storage, nutrients, and contaminants.
- A new method using microsensors and mass spectrometry allows for nondestructive measurement of exudation and biogeochemical changes along plant roots over time.
- Findings reveal that exudates create unique soil microenvironments, with specific relationships between sugars and microbial activity, as well as organic acids affecting soil pH as roots grow.
Article Synopsis
- Primary production in the sunlit ocean relies on nutrients like nitrate, phosphate, and iron, which are essential for phytoplankton to convert CO2 into biomass.
- Microbial metabolism in the upper mesopelagic 'twilight zone' (200-500 m) is believed to be constrained by the availability of organic carbon.
- The study reveals high concentrations of siderophores, indicating iron deficiency in both the surface and twilight zone of the eastern Pacific Ocean, suggesting that low iron availability may limit microbial metabolism across larger areas of the ocean, impacting carbon storage.
Article Synopsis
- A globally significant nitrogen-fixing marine cyanobacterium forms extensive surface blooms in nutrient-poor ocean regions, with diverse morphotypes impacting carbon and nitrogen cycles.
- This study assessed metabolite abundance in three distinct colony morphotypes from the Red Sea and compared them to two cultivable morphotypes using advanced mass spectrometry techniques.
- The research found significant variations in metabolites, particularly between natural colonies and the lab-cultured strain, revealing insights for future studies on marine metabolomics.
Article Synopsis
- Quinones are essential for redox reactions in natural organic matter but have not been identified in complex environmental samples.
- A new chemical tagging method that utilizes a Michael addition reaction between quinones and thiols in cysteine and cysteine-containing peptides was developed to identify these compounds.
- This study successfully showed that quinones can be tagged in complex environments, allowing for better understanding of their roles in redox chemistry and the composition of natural organic matter.
Understanding the chemical nature of soil organic carbon (SOC) with great potential to bind iron (Fe) minerals is critical for predicting the stability of SOC. Organic ligands of Fe are among the top candidates for SOCs able to strongly sorb on Fe minerals, but most of them are still molecularly uncharacterized. To shed insights into the chemical nature of organic ligands in soil and their fate, this study developed a protocol for identifying organic ligands using ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography-high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS/MS) and metabolomic tools.
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