Jennifer Macalady
Director of the Ecology Institute; Professor of Geosciences
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210 Deike
University Park, PA 16802 - jlm80@psu.edu
- 814-865-6330
Research Summary
Microbial interactions with earth materials: soils, sediments, solutes, atmospheric gases, minerals, and rocks. Early evolution of Earth’s biosphere, including photosynthesis and sulfur cycling. Microbial ecology, environmental omics, microbial biogeography.
Huck Affiliations
Links
Most Recent Publications
Isolation of a putative sulfur comproportionating microorganism
Heidi S. Aronson, Douglas E. LaRowe, Jennifer L. Macalady, Jan P. Amend, 2025, Scientific Reports
A reassessment of the “hard-steps” model for the evolution of intelligent life
Daniel B. Mills, Jennifer L. Macalady, Adam Frank, Jason T. Wright, 2025, Science advances
Enrichment of acid-tolerant sulfide-producing microbes from an acidic pit lake
Yutong Liu, Jennifer L. Macalady, Javier Sánchez-España, William D. Burgos, 2024, Frontiers in Microbiology on p. 13
Sulfur disproportionating microbial communities in a dynamic, microoxic-sulfidic karst system
Heidi S. Aronson, Christian E. Clark, Douglas E. LaRowe, Jan P. Amend, Lubos Polerecky, Jennifer L. Macalady, 2023, Geobiology on p. 791-803
Metagenome-Assembled Genomes from Appalachian Acid Mine Drainage Sites
Caden Williams, Jennifer Macalady, Christen Grettenberger, 2023, Genome Announcements
Thiovibrio frasassiensis gen. nov., sp. nov., an autotrophic, elemental sulphur disproportionating bacterium isolated from sulphidic karst sediment, and proposal of Thiovibrionaceae fam. nov.
Heidi S. Aronson, Cais Thomas, Maia K. Bhattacharyya, Shaan R. Eckstein, Sophia R. Jensen, Roman A. Barco, Jennifer L. Macalady, Jan P. Amend, 2023, International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology
Carbonates in the Critical Zone
M. D. Covington, J. B. Martin, L. E. Toran, J. L. Macalady, N. Sekhon, P. L. Sullivan, A. García, J. B. Heffernan, W. D. Graham, 2023, Earth's Future
Convergent Community Assembly among Globally Separated Acidic Cave Biofilms
Daniel S. Jones, Irene Schaperdoth, Diana E. Northup, Rodolfo Gómez-Cruz, Jennifer L. Macalady, 2023, Applied and Environmental Microbiology
Thousands of small, novel genes predicted in global phage genomes
Brayon J. Fremin, Ami S. Bhatt, Nikos C. Kyrpides, Aditi Sengupta, Alexander Sczyrba, Aline Maria da Silva, Alison Buchan, Amelie Gaudin, Andreas Brune, Ann M. Hirsch, Anthony Neumann, Ashley Shade, Axel Visel, Barbara Campbell, Brett Baker, Brian P. Hedlund, Byron C. Crump, Cameron Currie, Charlene Kelly, Chris Craft, Christina Hazard, Christopher Francis, Christopher W. Schadt, Colin Averill, Courtney Mobilian, Dan Buckley, Dana Hunt, Daniel Noguera, David Beck, David L. Valentine, David Walsh, Dawn Sumner, Despoina Lymperopoulou, Devaki Bhaya, Donald A. Bryant, Elise Morrison, Eoin Brodie, Erica Young, Erik Lilleskov, Eva Högfors-Rönnholm, Feng Chen, Frank Stewart, Graeme W. Nicol, Hanno Teeling, Harry R. Beller, Hebe Dionisi, Hui Ling Liao, J. Michael Beman, Jennifer Macalady, Monica Medina, 2022, Cell Reports
Novel Microorganisms Contribute to Biosulfidogenesis in the Deep Layer of an Acidic Pit Lake
Diana Ayala-Muñoz, Diana Ayala-Munoz, William Burgos, Javier Sánchez-España, Javier Sanchez-Espana, Carmen Falagán, Carmen Falagan, Estelle Couradeau, Jennifer L. Macalady, 2022, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology on p. 1129 (14 pages)
Most-Cited Papers
The role of biology in planetary evolution: Cyanobacterial primary production in low-oxygen Proterozoic oceans
Trinity L. Hamilton, Donald A. Bryant, Jennifer L. Macalady, 2016, Environmental Microbiology on p. 325-340
Low frequency Raman Spectroscopy for micron-scale and in vivo characterization of elemental sulfur in microbial samples
Maxwell Wetherington, Christine Nims, Brandi Cron, Jennifer Macalady, Julie Cosmidis, 2019, Scientific Reports
Geochemical niches of Iron-oxidizing acidophiles in acidic coal mine drainage
Daniel S. Jones, Courtney Kohl, Christen Grettenberger, Lance N. Larson, William D. Burgos, Jennifer L. Macalady, 2015, Applied and Environmental Microbiology on p. 1242-1250
Geochemical and temporal influences on the enrichment of acidophilic iron-oxidizing bacterial communities
Yizhi Sheng, Kyle Bibby, Christen Grettenberger, Bradley Kaley, Jennifer L. Macalady, Guangcai Wang, William D. Burgos, 2016, Applied and Environmental Microbiology on p. 3611-3621
Cyanobacterial photosynthesis under sulfidic conditions: Insights from the isolate Leptolyngbya sp. strain hensonii
Trinity L. Hamilton, Judith M. Klatt, Dirk De Beer, Jennifer L. Macalady, 2018, ISME Journal on p. 568-584
Carbon and sulfur cycling below the chemocline in a meromictic lake and the identification of a novel taxonomic lineage in the FCB superphylum, Candidatus Aegiribacteria
Trinity L. Hamilton, Roderick J. Bovee, Sarah R. Sattin, Wiebke Mohr, William P. Gilhooly, Timothy W. Lyons, Ann Pearson, Jennifer L. Macalady, 2016, Frontiers in Microbiology
Calcium isotopic fractionation in microbially mediated gypsum precipitates
Khadouja Harouaka, Muammar Mansor, Jennifer L. Macalady, Matthew S. Fantle, 2016, Geochmica et Cosmochimica Acta on p. 114-131
Biogeography of sulfur-oxidizing Acidithiobacillus populations in extremely acidic cave biofilms
Daniel S. Jones, Irene Schaperdoth, Jennifer L. Macalady, 2016, ISME Journal on p. 2879-2891
Sulfur isotope values in the sulfidic Frasassi cave system, central Italy: A case study of a chemolithotrophic S-based ecosystem
Aubrey L. Zerkle, Daniel S. Jones, James Farquhar, Jennifer L. Macalady, 2016, Geochmica et Cosmochimica Acta on p. 373-386
Microbial carbon, sulfur, iron, and nitrogen cycling linked to the potential remediation of a meromictic acidic pit lake
Diana Ayala-Munoz, Diana Ayala-Muñoz, Jennifer L. Macalady, Javier Sanchez-Espana, Javier Sánchez-España, Carmen Falagan, Carmen Falagán, Estelle Couradeau, William D. Burgos, 2022, ISME Journal on p. 2666–2679 (13 pages)
News Articles Featuring Jennifer Macalady
Mar 02, 2025
New Research on The Evolution of Intelligent Life
In this podcast episode, the guests are co-authors of a new paper in Science Advances titled: “A reassessment of the ‘hard-steps’ model for the evolution of intelligent life.”
Full Article
Jan 05, 2024
The stories that defined 2023 for the One Health Microbiome Center
A list of the top 10 most popular Penn State News articles about the One Health Microbiome Center
Full Article
Sep 26, 2023
Q&A: Searching for life where it shouldn’t exist
A team of Penn State scientists is working to solve one of the world’s greatest unsolved mysteries: how life originated on Earth — and how it might have evolved on other planets.
Full Article
Jul 13, 2021
Macalady named Ecology Institute director
Microbe expert Jennifer Macalady replaces outgoing director Erica Smithwick, who oversaw the research unit for the past five years.
Full Article
May 13, 2020
Possible microbes in the Mariana Trench hint at life on Jupiter’s moon
During the 2012 DEEPSEA CHALLENGE expedition to the deepest part of the ocean, scientists spotted fuzzy mats that may be communities of bacteria clinging to the rocks.
Full Article
Dec 14, 2019
Dried-up slime may assist microbes survive briny waters on Mars
Slime could help microbe stowaways survive a trip to Mars– and thrive in the planet’s salty waters once they arrive. Biofilms, colonies of cells embedded in a gooey protective coating, live longer than single cells when exposed to Mars-like brines – and even longer when they are dried out first, as they would be after travelling through space.
Full Article
Jul 03, 2025
Focus on research: Evolving intelligent life may not have been as unlikely as many scientists predicted
A popular model of evolution concludes that it was incredibly unlikely for humanity to evolve on Earth, and that extraterrestrial intelligence is vanishingly rare. But as experts on the entangled history of life and our planet, we propose that the coevolution of life and Earth’s surface environment may have unfolded in a way that makes the evolutionary origin of humanlike intelligence a more foreseeable or expected outcome than generally thought.
Full Article