Sonja Rose

Sonja Rose 

PhD Candidate

BSc with Honours (Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada)

Research

I am a Dal Biology PhD candidate working with Drs. Julie LaRoche and Erin Bertrand. My research involves the study of a recently cultured diazotroph, Candidatus Thalassolittus halegoni. We hope to explore the nitrogen fixation potential and nitrogenase abundancies for this microbe under various carbon substrates and fixed nitrogen sources using ¹⁵N₂ tracer methods and proteomics. We are also aiming to develop NIFH peptide assays for the identification of nitrogen fixing species. We are initially testing with pure cultures, with the aim of using environmental samples in the future. Overall, we hope that this isolate can be used as a model species for heterotrophic diazotrophs as few are cultured to date and little is understood about their physiology and nitrogen fixation capabilities.