Margaret R. Romine, Ph.D.
Expertise

Margaret Romine
Genetic characterization of microbial respiratory pathways, signal transduction pathways, aromatic catabolic metabolism, and siderophore biosynthesis; intermediate scale DNA sequence assembly; microbial genome annotation; utilization of genome sequence data to develop research hypotheses, design experiments to test these hypotheses, and to interpret data from microarray and high throughput proteome analyses; development of genetic tools for fluorescent labeling of microbial cells as well as monitoring promoter activity and protein localization.
Research Focus
Dr. Romine’s current research is primarily focused on studying the respiratory metabolism of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. As a participant in a multi-institution project funded by DOE’s Genomics: Genomes to Life (GTL) Program, she is charged with coordinating and conducting research on both updating the genome annotation and generating targeted genes deletions for 40 predicted c-type cytochromes encoded by MR-1. In order to facilitate the development of new tools for image analysis of Shewanella behavior, she participates in joint projects with Dr. Sunney Xie (Harvard) who is developing a genome wide transcriptional reporter library in MR-1, Dr. Shimon Weiss (UCLA) who is developing a novel method to map regulator binding to intact genomic DNA, and Dr. Gayla Orr (PNNL) who is evaluating a Fret-based method for analysis of protein-protein interactions in MR-1. She is also interested in the behavior of bacteria in mulitcellular communities or biofilms. In order to branch into this area, she is working with a group of scientists at PNNL to develop novel approaches for studying metabolite production, surface corrosion, and biofilm structural properties using acoustic, NMR, two photon and confocal instrumentation coupled to various fluorescent reporters.
Education
- Ph.D., Microbiology, University of Texas, 1988
- B.S., Microbiology, University of Illinois, 1982
Honors and Awards
- R&D100 Award 1997 for RubberCycle technology
- Discover Magazine Environmental Technology Finalist 1996 for RubberCycle technology
Professional Affiliations
- American Society of Microbiology
Selected Publications
Fredrickson JK, JM Zachara, DL Balkwill, D Kennedy, SW Li, HM Kostandarithes, MJ Daly, MF Romine, and FJ Brockman. 2004. “Geomicrobiology of high level nuclear waste contaminated vadose sediments at the Hanford Site, Washington State.” Applied and Environmental Microbiology 70(7):4230-4241.
Romine MF, DA Elias, ME Monroe, K Auberry, R Fang, JK Fredrickson, GA Anderson, RD Smith, and MS Lipton. 2004. “Validation of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 small proteins by AMT tag-based proteome analysis.” Omics 8(3):239-254.
Balkwill DL, JK Fredrickson, and MF Romine. 2003. “Sphingomonas and related genera.” In M. Dworkin, ed., The Prokaryotes: An evolving electronic resource for the microbiological community, 3rd edition, Release 3.14. Springer-Verlag, New York.
Lipton MS, L Pasa-Tolic, GA Anderson, DJ Anderson, DL Auberry, JR Battista, MJ Daly, J Fredrickson, KK Hixson, H Kostandarithes, TP Conrads, C Masselon, LM Markillie, RJ Moore, MF Romine, Y Shen, E Stritmatter, N Tolic, HR Udseth, TD Veenstra, A Venkateswaran, K-K Wong, R Zhao, and RD Smith. 2002. “Global analysis of the Deinococcus radiodurans proteome by using accurate mass tags.” In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 99(17):11049-11054.
Romine MF, JK Fredrickson, and S Li. 1999. "Induction of aromatic catabolic activities in Sphingomonas aromaticivorans strain F199.” Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology 23(4-5):303-313.
