Dr. Patricia Sobecky
Associate Professor, School of Biology
CESM Co-Director
Ph.D., University of Georgia
Phone: (404) 894-5819
Fax: (404) 894-0519
Office: (ES&T) 1242/1121
Research Interests
The long-term focus of Dr. Sobecky's research is the role of the horizontally transferred gene pool in marine and soil microbial communities and its contribution to bacterial adaptation. Our studies have addressed the ecology and molecular biology of indigenous plasmids by the development of molecular approaches and tools to study mobile genetic elements for the purpose of characterizing the relationships of plasmids and their contributions to LGT in coastal marine sediments and more recently in radionuclide- and metal-contaminated soils. Our research is conducted in numerous marine ecosystems including coastal and deep sea ecosystems as well as terrestrial systems that can be considered extreme environments. Our research has been funded by the NSF, ONR and DOE.