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The Development Of A Global Shoreland Information Database May Help Determine The Appropriate Bacteria And Nutrient Technology Needed To Remediate Oil Contaminated Shorelands, Tiffany Ann Veeder May 2022

The Development Of A Global Shoreland Information Database May Help Determine The Appropriate Bacteria And Nutrient Technology Needed To Remediate Oil Contaminated Shorelands, Tiffany Ann Veeder

Honors Projects

The use of oil and its derivative products is well known world-wide. The benefits of oil are many and its products, for example, range from gasoline used in our automobiles to its use in plastics, building products, and medical supplies. Oil spill hazards associated with oil extraction, production, and transportation can have devastating impacts on the environment and local economies. When oil spills happen in the water, for instance, major shorelands are placed at risk of significant harm. As oil contaminates shorelands, the impacts can range from killing sea creatures and seabirds to destroying entire ecosystems. To help mitigate the …


Diversity Of Bacteriophage In Burkholderia Species, Abigail Price Apr 2022

Diversity Of Bacteriophage In Burkholderia Species, Abigail Price

Honors Projects

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect and replicate within bacteria and offer the potential of a therapeutic alternative to chronic infections that do not respond to antibiotic-based therapies. B. vietnamiensis is one of a number of Burkholderia species involved with chronic drug resistant infections in the lungs of individuals with compromised respiratory systems, as found in those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and, most especially, are of particular significance in patients with cystic fibrosis. The diversity of the Burkholderia species is explored by using online databases and looking at bacteriophage or phage-encoding viruses found in B. vietnamiensis. The open reading frames …


Assessing Environmental Factors That Influence Cyanobacterial Blooms In Skinn Lake, Kloe Atwood Apr 2022

Assessing Environmental Factors That Influence Cyanobacterial Blooms In Skinn Lake, Kloe Atwood

Honors Projects

Global lakes are experiencing an increase in toxic algal blooms that can be damaging to the environment. These blooms are caused by cyanobacteria, specifically a species called Planktothrix. Skinn Lake, in Ohio, is a location of a cyanobacterial bloom that is mainly populated by Planktothrix rubescens. This lake was further examined to identify the major toxin-producing bacteria and identify environmental microbes surrounding the bloom. When the data was examined it was found that the microbiomes of the lake greatly differed between the winter (bloom) months and the summer (non-bloom) months. This difference can be viewed within the nutrient analysis from …


Developing An Electroporation Method For Transforming Streptomyces Nymphaeiformis, Heather Knott, Stephen Baron Apr 2022

Developing An Electroporation Method For Transforming Streptomyces Nymphaeiformis, Heather Knott, Stephen Baron

Honors Projects

Streptomyces species are notoriously difficult to transform. Streptomyces nymphaeiformis is no different, so a method of electroporation was used to attempt to transform the cells. Multiple growth stages were used in order to alter the degree of development of the cell wall. The procedure did not kill the cells, but the cells were not transformed. Due to the lack of transformation with S. nymphaeiformis, transformation was attempted on two other Streptomyces strains, S. lividans and S. coelicolor. Neither was successfully transformed to thiostrepton (tsr) resistance, nor did they grow on a plate lacking thiostrepton. One possibility for the …


Impact Of Endangered Animal Protection Rights, Policies, And Practices On Zoonotic Disease Spread, Daniella Fedak-Lengel Dec 2020

Impact Of Endangered Animal Protection Rights, Policies, And Practices On Zoonotic Disease Spread, Daniella Fedak-Lengel

Honors Projects

Building on field research in Costa Rica and Belize, this honors project analyzes environmental and endangered animal protection policies, rights, and practices in Central America and the Caribbean, and assesses the impact of veterinary science and biological research and practice, particularly conservation biology, on animal welfare concerns. Informed by the recent surge in awareness regarding zoonoses and zoonotic disease transmission, prevention and control, resulting from the current global pandemic of SARS-CoV-2, the project assesses the need for new and innovative types of collaboration, particularly involving conservation biologists, environmental scientists, public health experts, law and policy makers, and global trade and …


Glycogen Accumulation By Wild Type And Bald Mutant Strains Of Streptomyces Sp. Sfb5a During Growth On 3-Hydroxybutyrate, Mackenzie Francis May 2020

Glycogen Accumulation By Wild Type And Bald Mutant Strains Of Streptomyces Sp. Sfb5a During Growth On 3-Hydroxybutyrate, Mackenzie Francis

Honors Projects

Previous research has shown that Streptomyces sp. SFB5A produces PHA depolymerase and forms aerial hyphae, while the bld4 mutant of this species forms aerial hyphae very poorly and does not produce PHA depolymerase. This effect may be due to the mutant’s inability to sense starvation. Therefore, we hypothesized that the bld4 may also be deficient in formation of glycogen and spores, which are both associated with starvation. To test this hypothesis, we grew the wild type (WT) Streptomyces sp. SFB5A and bld4 in broth cultures containing 3HB. We compared 3HB consumption, glycogen accumulation, PHA depolymerase synthesis, protein accumulation, and spore …


Possible Role Of N-Acetylglucosamine For Induction Of Polyhydroxybutyrate Depolymerase In Streptomyces Sp. Sfb5a, Morgan Todd May 2020

Possible Role Of N-Acetylglucosamine For Induction Of Polyhydroxybutyrate Depolymerase In Streptomyces Sp. Sfb5a, Morgan Todd

Honors Projects

Streptomyces sp. SFB5A is a filamentous, Gram-positive bacterium that makes a polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) depolymerase to degrade PHB for energy usage. Its life cycle begins as spores germinate to form vegetative mycelia. Starvation prompts formation of aerial mycelia and ultimately spores after 5-7 days. During starvation, Streptomyces may use peptidoglycan hydrolases to degrade its own cell walls, releasing N-Acetylglucosamine (NAG). PHA depolymerase activity is detected during growth of strain SFB5A on NAG as the sole carbon source, suggesting that NAG induces PHA depolymerase synthesis. To test this hypothesis, strain SFB5A was grown for 4 days on PHB, and a colorimetric assay …


Assay Of The Reverse Osmosis Purified Water In The Life Science Building At Bowling Green State University, Ohio, Nicholas Mendenhall, Scott O. Rogers, Neocles B. Leontis Apr 2018

Assay Of The Reverse Osmosis Purified Water In The Life Science Building At Bowling Green State University, Ohio, Nicholas Mendenhall, Scott O. Rogers, Neocles B. Leontis

Honors Projects

Contaminated water sources can cause problems for scientific research and result in costly delays and failures of experiments. At Bowling Green State University, the reverse osmosis supply circulating in the Life Sciences Building has been measurably contaminated for nearly three years, corresponding to a change in servicing of the system. While servicing has been accelerated, the contamination in the system remains. The focus of this research was to identify the species of bacteria and fungi growing inside of the water system so that it might alert those servicing the system, and to begin to eliminate the contamination. Reverse osmosis water …


Super-Killers: Environmental Isolates That Antagonize Pathogenic Vibrio, Abigail Joy Dec 2015

Super-Killers: Environmental Isolates That Antagonize Pathogenic Vibrio, Abigail Joy

Honors Projects

Vibrio are members of a bacterial group that thrive in diverse aquatic environments including on the surface of aquatic animals, free-living in the water column, and in association with suspended particles. The total Vibrio counts in the coastal ocean ranges from 103-105 per milliliter of water depending on seasons and water temperature. Although many different species of Vibrio persist in the water column, pathogenic strains, such as Vibrio cholerae and Vibrio parahaemolyticus are absent or rare in marine environments. We hypothesize that the low abundance of these pathogenic species may be due to interspecific competition among environmental …