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Using Single Cell Genomics To Explore The Impact Of Marine Viruses On Microbial Respiration., Paxton Tomko Jan 2024

Using Single Cell Genomics To Explore The Impact Of Marine Viruses On Microbial Respiration., Paxton Tomko

MCB Articles

Viral metabolic reprograming of marine prokaryotes, through the use of virally encoded auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs), plays a critical role in marine ecosystem function by influencing biochemical cycles and genetic diversity in these environments. Despite the fundamental role viruses play in global environmental ecosystems, they remain an understudied aspect of microbial ecology and evolution, in part due to the methods available for studying virus host interactions in natural systems. Thus far, metagenomic analyses have been used to study the interactions of virus host pairs, but these types of analyses have their limitations in accurately linking viruses to hosts, or culture-based …


Mechanistic Examination Of Protist-Mediated Plant Growth Through The Comparative Development Of Medicago Truncatula, Shane Connolly May 2023

Mechanistic Examination Of Protist-Mediated Plant Growth Through The Comparative Development Of Medicago Truncatula, Shane Connolly

University Scholar Projects

Protists are known to increase plant growth through two main mechanisms: the microbial loop and the alteration of the root microbiome. The microbial loop is a nutrient recycling method in which protists provide inorganic nitrogen ions to the plant. Alteration of root microbiome leads to the removal of plant pathogens and shifting communities towards plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB). This study aimed to elicit which mechanism could produce the largest boost in shoot weight for Medicago truncatula. A series of microcosm experiments were explored in which M. truncatula was grown with variable microbiome structures to allow for mechanism differentiation. The …


Alterations Of The Gut Mycobiome In Patients With Ms - A Bioinformatic Approach, Saumya Shah May 2022

Alterations Of The Gut Mycobiome In Patients With Ms - A Bioinformatic Approach, Saumya Shah

Honors Scholar Theses

The mycobiome is the fungal component of the gut microbiome and is implicated in several autoimmune diseases. However, its role in multiple sclerosis (MS) has not been studied. We performed descriptive and formal statistical tests using the R language to characterize the gut mycobiome in people with MS (pwMS) and healthy controls. We found that the microbiome composition of multiple sclerosis patients is different from healthy people. The mycobiome had significantly higher alpha diversity and inter-subject variation in pwMS than controls. Additionally, Saccharomyces and Aspergillus were over-represented in pwMS. Different mycobiome profiles, defined as mycotypes, were associated with different bacterial …


Identification And Analysis Of Feather Degrading Bacteria: A Search For Keratinase Genes, Nehal Navali May 2020

Identification And Analysis Of Feather Degrading Bacteria: A Search For Keratinase Genes, Nehal Navali

Honors Scholar Theses

Over two million tons of feather waste is generated annually by the poultry industry, the majority of which goes into landfills due to the difficulty of degrading its major component keratin. Although a portion of feather waste is eliminated via incineration or chemical treatment, the use of Feather Degrading Bacteria (FDB) has been proposed as a cheap and eco-friendly alternative. FDBs have been consistently isolated from the feather microbiome of birds and contain genes coding for the specialized protein keratinase which is able to degrade feathers. By doing so, feather waste, which is rich in nutrients, can be repurposed as …


Genetic Diversity In The Leucoagaricus Cultivar Fungus Of Trachymyrmex Septentrionalis Fungus-Growing Ants, Lee Deininger Apr 2019

Genetic Diversity In The Leucoagaricus Cultivar Fungus Of Trachymyrmex Septentrionalis Fungus-Growing Ants, Lee Deininger

MCB Articles

No abstract provided.


Composition And Function Of The Bacterial Consortium Associated With The Accessory Nidamental Gland Of The Hawaiian Bobtail Squid, Jessica Bertenshaw May 2018

Composition And Function Of The Bacterial Consortium Associated With The Accessory Nidamental Gland Of The Hawaiian Bobtail Squid, Jessica Bertenshaw

Honors Scholar Theses

The bacterial consortium associated with the accessory nidamental gland (ANG) of the Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna Scolopes is posited to confer symbiotic benefits to the eggs of the squid when bacteria are transferred from the gland of the mother to the jelly coat, which surrounds the embryo in the egg. To characterize the composition of this community bacterial isolates from the egg jelly coat and from the ANG were identified using 16S sequencing. To elucidate the function of these bacteria, egg development experiments were performed to determine the effect of antibiotics on egg survival and the composition of the bacterial …


Characterizing Cultivable Bacteria From Trachymyrmex Septentrionalis Fungus Gardens, Hannah Beatty May 2018

Characterizing Cultivable Bacteria From Trachymyrmex Septentrionalis Fungus Gardens, Hannah Beatty

Honors Scholar Theses

The relationship between the fungus-growing ant Trachymyrmex septentrionalis, its symbiotic cultivar fungus, and the transient and residential community of microorganisms is a diverse and complex symbiosis that has evolved over space and time. The fungus garden, comprised primarily of the cultivar fungus belonging to the family Leucocoprineae,provides an environment that hosts many bacteria, which may also play an important role in this symbiosis. Although it is known that Pseudonocardia bacteria defend the ant host against fungal pathogens, other species of bacteria that are present in these fungus gardens also likely contribute to this symbiosis. Previous studies of this …


An Exploration Of The Phylogenetic Placement Of Recently Discovered Ultrasmall Archaeal Lineages, Jeffrey M. O'Brien Aug 2015

An Exploration Of The Phylogenetic Placement Of Recently Discovered Ultrasmall Archaeal Lineages, Jeffrey M. O'Brien

Honors Scholar Theses

In recent years, several new clades within the domain Achaea have been discovered. This is due in part to microbiological sampling of novel environments, and the increasing ability to detect and sequence uncultivable organisms through metagenomic analysis. These organisms share certain features, such as small cell size and streamlined genomes. Reduction in genome size can present difficulties to phylogenetic reconstruction programs. Since there is less genetic data to work with, these organisms often have missing genes in concatenated multiple sequence alignments. Evolutionary Biologists have not reached a consensus on the placement of these lineages in the archaeal evolutionary tree. There …