RCN Participant: Frank F. Roberto

Dr. Frank F. Roberto
Scientific Fellow and Group Leader
INL Research Center
Biological Sciences Department
Idaho National Laboratory
Idaho Falls, ID

Frank Roberto's Images (7)

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My primary interest in Yellowstone is in thermoacidophilic bacteria and archaea. I have worked for the past 18 years on the genetics and ecology of acidophilic bacteria found in natural and man-made environments. Sampling sites in Yellowstone have included Frying Pan hot spring (and nearby pool), Roaring Mountain, Moose Pool (Mud Volcano area), and various small pools along the Gibbon River and in the Norris Geyser Basin. I am a coinvestigator with Mark Young (as well as Dave Mogk and Ken Steadman) in a Microbial Observatories project entitled "Viruses from Yellowstone Thermal Acidic Environments. " Ragged Hills, Rabbit Creek, and Crater Hills hot, acidic springs are part of this study. My lab performs much of the archaeal 16S rRNA and virus sequencing associated with the project.

Another major line of research in my lab involves molecular techniques to identify Brucella, a zoonotic pathogen of bison and elk, and a significant controversy in the Greater Yellowstone Area, but that's another story....Dr. Deborah Newby, another RCN participant, is a co-investigator in much of this work.

Dr. Roberto is an author on these YNP topic Publications:
1	Metagenomes from High-Temperature Chemotrophic Systems Reveal Geochemical Controls on Microbial Community Structure and Function PLoS ONE, 2010
2	Archaeal Viruses from Yellowstone?s High Temperature Environments Geothermal Biology and Geochemistry in YNP [TBI Text!], 2005
3	Effects of Culturing on the Population Structure of a Hyperthermophilic Virus Microbial Ecology, 2004
4	Comparative Genomic Analysis of Hyperthermophilic Archaeal Fuselloviridae Viruses Journal of Virology, 2004
5	The structure of a thermophilic archaeal virus shows a double-stranded DNA viral capsid type that spans all domains of life Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2004
6	Novel thermo-acidophilic bacteria isolated from geothermal sites in Yellowstone National Park: physiological and phylogenetic characteristics Archives of Microbiology, 2003

YNP RCN, Montana State University, PO Box 173142, Bozeman, MT 59717-3142