Georgia Institute of TechnologyCSSB
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Dr. Patricia Sobecky

Associate Professor

School of Biology

member
Dr. Patricia Sobecky

    Contact information:
  • School of Biology
  • 311 Ferst Drive
  • ES&T, Room 1242
  • Atlanta, GA 30332, Mail Code: 0230
  • Tel: 404-894-5819
  • Fax: 404-894-0519
  • Email:

Research Interests

A long-term focus of Dr. Sobecky's research is the role of the horizontally transferred gene pool in marine and soil microbial communities and its contribution to bacterial adaptation. Our studies have addressed the ecology and molecular biology of indigenous plasmids by the development of molecular approaches and tools to study mobile genetic elements for the purpose of characterizing the relationships of plasmids and their contributions to HGT in coastal marine sediments and more recently in radionuclide- and metal-contaminated soils. Another long-term interest is the role of microorganisms in P cycling and the application of P-mediated microbial processes to metal and radionuclide immobilization. These research activities have been conducted in numerous ecosystems including coastal and deep sea ecosystems as well as terrestrial systems that can be considered extreme environments. We use a combination of microbiological, molecular, geochemical and computational approaches in these various studies. Our research has been funded by the NSF, ONR and DOE.

Publications
Faculty Page

Selected Publications (last 5 years)

Martinez, R.J., Wang, Y., Raimondo, M.A., Coombs, J.M., Barkay, T., and P.A. Sobecky. 2006. Horizontal gene transfer of PIB-type ATPases among bacteria isolated from radionuclide- and metal-contaminated subsurface soils. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 72:3111-3118.
Martinez, R.J., Mills, H.J., S. Story, P.A. Sobecky. 2006. Prokaryotic diversity and metabolically active microbial populations in sediments from an active mud volcano in the Gulf of Mexico. Environmental Microbiology (in press)
Mills, H.J., R.J. Martinez, S. Story and P.A. Sobecky. 2005. Characterization of microbial community structure in Gulf of Mexico gas hydrates: a comparative analysis of DNA- and RNA-derived clone libraries. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 71:3235-3247.
Mills, H.J., R.J. Martinez, S. Story, and P.A. Sobecky. 2004. Identification of members of the metabolically active microbial populations associated with Beggiatoa species mat communities from Gulf of Mexico cold-seep sediments. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 70:5447-5458.
Mills, H.J., C. Hodges, K. Wilson, I.R. MacDonald and P.A. Sobecky. 2003. Microbial Diversity in Sediments Associated with Surface Breaching Gas Hydrate Mounds in the Gulf of Mexico. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 46:39-52.
Agron, P.G., P.A. Sobecky, and G.L. Anderson. 2002. Establishment of uncharacterized plasmids in Escherichia coli by in vitro transposition. FEMS Microbiology Letters 217:249-254.
Sobecky, P.A. 2002. Approaches to investigating the ecology of plasmids in marine microbial communities. Plasmid 48:213-221.
Smalla, K. and P.A. Sobecky. 2002. The prevalence and diversity of mobile genetic elements in bacterial communities of different environmental habitats: insights gained from different methodological approaches. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 42:165-175.
Beeson, K.E., D.L. Erdner, C.E. Bagwell, C.R. Lovell, and P.A. Sobecky. 2002. Differentiation of plasmids in marine diazotroph assemblages determined by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA analysis. Microbiology 148:179-189.
Powers, L.G., H.J. Mills, A.V. Palumbo, C. Zhang, K. Delaney and P.A. Sobecky. 2002. Introduction of a plasmid-encoded phoA gene for constitutive overproduction of alkaline phosphatase in three subsurface Pseudomonas isolates. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 41:115-123.
Pfiffner, S.M., P.A. Sobecky, T.J. Phelps, and A.V. Palumbo. 2002. Microbiology of Atlantic Coastal Plain aquifers and other unconsolidated subsurface sediments. In Gabriel Bitton (ed.) Encyclopedia of Environmental Microbiology , Vol (4), pp. 2028-2042.
Cook, M.A, A.M. Osborn, J.A. Bettandorff, and P.A. Sobecky. 2001. Endogenous isolation of replicon probes for assessing plasmid ecology of marine sediment microbial communities. Microbiology 147:2089-2101.
Mills, H.J., L.G. Powers, A.V. Palumbo, C.L. Zhang, and P.A. Sobecky. 2001. Uranium Sequestration by Microbially Induced Phosphorus Bioavailability. In : A. Leeson, B.M. Peyton, J.L. Means, and V.S. Magar (Eds.), Bioremediation of Inorganic Compounds. Proceedings of the Sixth International In Situ and On-Site Bioremediation Symposium, Vol. 6(9), pp. 165-171.