Faculty

Enlarge

Juergen Wiegel, Ph.D.
Distinguished Research Professor of Microbiology
Ph.D. (1973) University of Göttingen, FRG

Address: Department of Microbiology
212C Biological Sciences
Athens, GA 30602-2605
Phone: (706) 542-2651
E-mail: jwiegel@uga.edu
Web site: http://www.uga.edu/kamchatka
COS CV: http://myprofile.cos.com/jwiegel
PubMed: wiegel j

Research Interests:

Research Interests:
Anaerobic thermophiles:  Ongoing research includes the isolation and classification of novel microororganism exhibiting special features of industrial or academic interest with a special focus on anaerobic (extreme)thermophiles. Thermophilic anaerobes have a potential for use in industrial applications due to several features, including their thermostable enzymes. We have described more than 30 novel thermophilic anaerobes, some of which have been patented, e.g. for ethanol production, others constitute a new group of exciting extremophiles, e.g., the alkali-thermophilic anaerobes, which grow optimally above pH 9.0 and 65°C with doubling times as short as 10 min or halophilic alkalithermophiles growing in media with sodium concentrations close to saturation at temperatures up to 75°C and pH values (measured at growth temperatures) up to pH 11.5. Previously it was assumed that such conditions are too hostile for significant growth of bacteria, thus we are trying to elucidate the mechanisms of these bacteria to grow under the multiextreme conditions. In general, our physiological studies include answering nutritional questions, regulation studies and the isolation of enzymes (e.g. xylosidases/xylanases/lipases/decarboxylases) of industrial and academic interest. The ecological studies deal with distribution and diversity of anaerobic thermophiles in both moderate and extreme environments. To be able to manipulate our strains for industrial applications we developed a genetic system for anaerobic thermophilic firmicutes of the family Thermoanaerobacteriaceae and related firmicutes including thermophilic clostridia

Publications:
Mesbah N. M. David, B. Hedrick, A. D. Peacock, M. Rohde, and J. Wiegel. 2007. Natranaerobius thermophilus gen. nov. sp. nov., a halophilic, alkalithermophilic bacterium  from soda lakes of the Wadi An Natrun, Egypt. and proposal of Natranaerobiaceae fam. nov. and Natranaerobiales ord. nov. Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 57:2507-2512.
Salameh, M.A., and J. Wiegel. 2007. Purification and characterization of two highly thermophilic alkaline lipases from Thermosyntropha lipolytica.Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 73:7725-7731.
Zhao, W., Zhang, C.L., Romanek, C.S., and Wiegel, J. 2008. Description of Caldalkalibacillus uzonensis sp. nov. and emended description of the genus Caldalkalibacillus. Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 58:1106-1108.
Lupa, B., Lyon, D., Shaw, L.N., Sieprawska-Lupa, M., and Wiegel, J. 2008. Properties of the reversible nonoxidative vanillate/4-hydroxybenzoate decarboxylase from Bacillus subtilis. Can. J. Microbiol. 54:75-81.
Mesbah, N.M., and Wiegel, J. 2008. Life at extreme limits: the anaerobic halophilic alkalithermophiles. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1125:44-57. (Review)
Wagner, I.D., and Wiegel, J. 2008. Diversity of thermophilic anaerobes. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1125:1-43. (Review)