Microbial Life within Deep Earth Crust underneath the Deccan Traps, India
Date: Tuesday, 19 Sep 2023
Time: 4pm – 5pm
Venue: NTU School of Biological Sciences Classroom 2 (SBS-01N-22)
Introduction to talk:
Deep terrestrial subsurface represents one of the largest repositories of global prokaryotic biomass with enormous role in evolution and functioning of our bio/geo sphere. Deep life hosted by progressively hot, oligotrophic igneous crust of ~65 Ma old basalt and underneath Archaean granitic basement (up to ~3000 m) of the Deccan Traps, India is explored through environmental genomics and culture-based approaches. Microbial community structure and function, interactions and environmental constrains are elucidated. Reactivation experiments and adaptive laboratory evolution based strategies are used to decipher metabolic characteristics and potential application of these unexplored microorganisms in CO2 valorization, astrobiology and industrial microbiology.
Speaker:
PROFESSOR PINAKI SAR
Department of Biotechnology
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, India
