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Photo of Don Button

Contact Information

Institute of Marine Science
5160 Sand Lake Road
Webster, WI 45893
Phone: (715) 866-4999
dkbutton@alaska.edu

Don Button Professor Emeritus

Biological Oceanography

Specialties

Research Overview

My general objective is to understand biological systems and integrated group processes which allow the biosphere to function as a unit. Primary focus is on the movement of dissolved nutrients into marine microorganisms by active transport. The point is to understand nutrient transport on a molecular basis, how component systems are regulated by the environment, and organisms function collectively to maintain ample dissolved nutrient levels for robust populations.

Recent efforts include further advancements in flow cytometry which allow detailed study of marine bacteria on a cell by cell basis. This technology has been invaluable for in situ studies and was instrumental for bringing typical marine oligobacteria into laboratory cultivation. This allows extensions of our theoretical and experimental work on nutrition kinetics to these dominant but poorly studied marine organisms. Application of the tools of molecular biology to this newly isolated class of particularly small bacteria allows descriptions of their functionality in terms of cytoarchitecture. Focus is on membrane proteins which are the functional components of ultramicrobacteria that interact directly with their environment.

Growth kinetics laboratory
The laboratory of D. K. Button is devoted to understanding the dynamics of aquatic microbial processes with special attention to bacteria. Areas of focus are nutrient kinetics, analysis by flow cytometry, and isolation technology. Areas under development are genomics and proteomics. We study bacterial dynamics because it is the major recycling component for organic carbon in the oceans, but one that is only beginning to be understood. Moreover, while functioning in a complex environment with a small genome, these organisms offer a route to improved understanding of ecosystem control.

Links

Selected Publications

Button, D K; Robertson B., Gustafson, E. and Zhao, X. 2004 The experimental and mathematical foundation of specific affinity, a cytoarchitecture-based theory for replacing the Michaelis Menten paradigm. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 70:5511-5521.

Perney, G, Robertson, B.R., and Button, D.K.  2004. DNA determinations in aquatic bacteria by flow cytometry. In Methods in molecular biology. Humana Press, Clifton NJ.

Button, D. K. 2003. Kinetics (microbial). Theory and Application. In: The encyclopedia of environmental microbiology.  Ed: Bitton, G. John Wiley and Sons, New York. 1738-1747.

Button, D. K. 2003. Life in Extremely Dilute Environments: the Major Role of Oligobacteria, p. 160-168. In A. Bull (ed.), Microbial Ecology - The Key to Discovery. American Society for Microbiology Press, Washington

Button, D. K. 2002. Kinetics (Microbial): theory and applications. In The encyclopedia of environmental microbiology. G. Bitton, editor. Wiley. pp1738-1748

Button, D. K. 2001 Isolation of oligobacteria. In Marine Microbiology, p161-173. J. Paul, Editor. Academic Press

Button, D. K. And B. R. Robertson. 2001. DNA content of heterotrophic bacterioplankton by flow cytometry. Appli. Environ. Microbiol. 67 (4), 1636-1645

Button, D. K., and B. R. Robertson. 2000. Effect of nutrient kinetics and cytoarchitecture on bacterioplankton size. Limnol.Oceanogr. 45 499-505.

Robertson B. R. and D. K. Button. 1999. Bacterial biomass from measurements of forward light scatter intensity by flow cytometry. In: Robinson, P. (Ed.), Current Protocols in Cytometry. John Wiley & Sons, New York.

Button, D. K. 1998. Nutrient uptake by microorganisms according to kinetic parameters from theory as related to cytoarchitecture. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 62(3):636-645.

Button, D. K, B. R. Robertson, T. Schmidt and P. Lepp. 1998. A small, dilute-cytoplasm, high-affinity, novel bacterium isolated by extinction culture that has kinetic constants compatible with growth at measured concentrations of dissolved nutrients in seawater. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 11:4467-4476.

Quang, P, D. K Button and B. R Robertson. 1998. Use of species distribution data in the determination of bacterial viability by extinction culture of aquatic bacteria. J. Microbiol. Methods 33:203-210.

Robertson, B. R, D. K Button and A. L. Koch. 1998. Determination of the biomasses of small bacteria at low concentration in a mixture of species with forward light scatter measurements by flow cytometry. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 64:3900-3909.