Sallie (Penny) W. Chisholm

About

Sallie (Penny) W. Chisholm is an MIT Institute Professor who studies the biology, ecology, and evolution of the most abundant marine phytoplankton species to understand the forces that shape microbial ecosystems. Her research focuses on the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus, which is the smallest and most abundant microbe in ocean ecosystems, sometimes accounting for half of the total photosynthetic biomass. She uses this model system to study life across all scales, from the genome to the ecosystem, with the goal of understanding how ocean microbes influence global biogeochemical cycles. Her work has significantly contributed to our understanding of microbial ecology and evolution in marine environments.

Research topics

• Biology
• Ecology
• Botany
• Oceanography
• Genetics

Selected publications

• Novel integrative elements and genomic plasticity in ocean ecosystems

  Cell · 2023-01-01 · 91 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Phosphonate production by marine microbes: Exploring new sources and potential function

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2022-03-07 · 81 citations

  articleOpen access

  Significance Phosphonates are a class of phosphorus metabolites characterized by a highly stable C-P bond. Phosphonates accumulate to high concentrations in seawater, fuel a large fraction of marine methane production, and serve as a source of phosphorus to microbes inhabiting nutrient-limited regions of the oligotrophic ocean. Here, we show that 15% of all bacterioplankton in the surface ocean have genes phosphonate synthesis and that most belong to the abundant groups Prochlorococcus and SAR11…

  PublisherDOI

• Metabolite diversity among representatives of divergent <i>Prochlorococcus</i> ecotypes

  mSystems · 2023-10-10 · 23 citations

  articleOpen access

  ABSTRACT The euphotic zone of the surface ocean contains distinct physical-chemical regimes that vary in light and nutrient concentrations as an inverse function of depth. The most numerous phytoplankter of the mid- and low-latitude ocean is the picocyanobacterium Prochlorococcus , which consists of ecologically distinct subpopulations (i.e., “ecotypes”). Ecotypes have different temperature, light, and nutrient optima and display distinct relative abundances along gradients of these niche dimens…

  PublisherDOI

• Environmental and Taxonomic Drivers of Bacterial Extracellular Vesicle Production in Marine Ecosystems

  Applied and Environmental Microbiology · 2023-05-18 · 22 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Bacteria release extracellular vesicles that contain a wide variety of cellular compounds, including lipids, proteins, nucleic acids, and small molecules, into their surrounding environment. These structures are found in diverse microbial habitats, including the oceans, where their distributions vary throughout the water column and likely affect their functional impacts within microbial ecosystems. Using a quantitative analysis of marine microbial cultures, we show that bacterial vesicle product…

  PublisherDOI

• Chitin utilization by marine picocyanobacteria and the evolution of a planktonic lifestyle

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2023-05-09 · 21 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Marine picocyanobacteria Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus , the most abundant photosynthetic cells in the oceans, are generally thought to have a primarily single-celled and free-living lifestyle. However, while studying the ability of picocyanobacteria to supplement photosynthetic carbon fixation with the use of exogenous organic carbon, we found the widespread occurrence of genes for breaking down chitin, an abundant source of organic carbon that exists primarily as particles. We show that ce…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Membrane vesicles produced by marine bacteria: origins, distributions, and functions

  NSF · $599k · 2014–2019

• Nitrate Assimilation and the Ecology of Prochlorococcus: Features and Implications of Intraspecific Diversity in a Model Marine Phototroph

  NSF · $803k · 2012–2018

• NIH Grant P41RR002250

  NIH · $9.3M · 2014

Frequent coauthors

• Allison Coe

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  111 shared

• Steven J. Biller

  Wellesley College

  96 shared

• Jamie W. Becker

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  76 shared

• Paul M. Berube

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  72 shared

• Thomas Hackl

  67 shared

• Robert Olson

  BC Cancer Agency

  63 shared

• Matthew B. Sullivan

  The Ohio State University

  62 shared

• Jessie W Berta-Thompson

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  58 shared

Labs

• Chisholm LabPI

Education

• Ph.D., Biology

  State University of New York

  1974

• B.A., Biology/Chemistry

  Skidmore College

  1969

Awards & honors

• Crafoord Prize (2019)
• Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology (2013)
• American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow…
• National Medal of Science (2011)
• National Academy of Sciences, Alexander Agassiz Medal (2010)

Similar researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Rudolf Jaenischh-295
• Robert A. Weinbergh-291
• Susumu Tonegawah-237