Patricia Sobecky, Associate Professor
Ph.D. Microbiology, University of Georgia, 1993
Phone: (404) 894-5819
Fax: (404) 894-0519
Office: (ES&T) 1242/1121
Research Interests
Environmental Microbiology, Bioremediation, Horizontal Gene Transfer, Microbial Pathogens, Plasmid Ecology
Overview
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 and proliferation. Our studies address the ecology and molecular biology of microbial plasmids by the development of molecular approaches and tools to study mobile genetic elements for the purpose of characterizing the relationships of mobile elements and their contributions to HGT in coastal marine sediments and more recently in radionuclide- and metal-contaminated soils. Our research is conducted in numerous environmental systems including coastal and deep sea ecosystems as well as terrestrial systems, many of which can be considered extreme environments. 
Selected Publications (Last 5 years)
Criminger, J.D., Hazen, T.H., Sobecky, P.A. and C.R. Lovell. 2007. Nitrogen fixation by Vibrio parahaemolyticus and its implications for a new ecological niche. Applied and Environmental Microbiology doi:10.1128/AEM.00981-07 (in press)
Martinez, R.J., Beazley, M.J., Taillefert, M. Arakaki, A.K., Skolnick, J., and P.A. Sobecky 2007. Aerobic uranium(VI) bioprecipitation by metal resistant bacteria isolated from radionuclide- and metal-contaminated subsurface soils. Environmental Microbiology doi:10.1111/j.1462-2920.2007.01422.x (in press)
Beazley, M.J., Martinez, R.J., P.A. Sobecky, S.M. Webb and M. Taillefert. 2007. Uranium biomineralization as a result of bacterial phosphatase activity: insights from bacterial isolates from a contaminated subsurface. Environmental Science and Technology (in press)
Burkepile, D.E., Parker, J.D., Woodson, C.B., Mills, H.J., Kubanek, J., Sobecky, P.A., and M.E. Hay. 2006. Chemically-mediated competition between microbes and animals: microbes as consumers in food webs. Ecology 87(11):2821-2831.
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.
Bottom photo courtesy of Ian MacDonald, Texas A&M University