Life Sciences Commons^™

Characterization Of Landfill Leachate For Enhanced Metal Recovery, Hanna Fulford, Amisha Shah, Inez Hua, Nadezhda Zyaykina, Lori Hoagland, Alejandro Rodriguez Sanchez, Umut Bicim

Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship

Landfills contain a trove of valuable materials, such as critical, precious, and rare earth metals, that are integral to the United State’s economy and national security. The leachate that filters through landfills picks up these materials, which allows for the possibility of recovery. For this research, samples will be analyzed from landfills throughout the Midwestern United States to provide a baseline on water quality constituents, elements present, and microbial activity. Preliminary data for this study was acquired by analyzing samples of landfill leachate from a landfill in northern Indiana. pH readings indicate that the leachate is slightly basic. It also …

A Identification And Isolation Of Several Bacteria From Oral Cavity Among Human In Soran City, Holem Hashm Balaky, Alaa Taha Younis Al-Hammadi

Al-Qadisiyah Journal of Pure Science

The aim of this study has been to estimate that the number of bacteria in the mouth exceeds the total number of people on the planet. In this context, scientists have discovered more than 700 different types of human oral bacteria. With such a large number of oral bacteria present, many diseases that may threaten health, especially oral health, can emerge. For this reason, this study was employed and conducted on 252 healthy people in the Soran area of the city of Erbil. Both sexes were involved and different ages were selected. Swabs taken from 226 participants gave positive growths …

Mara Repression Of Virulence Gene Hila In Salmonella, Alexandra King, Lauren Daugherty, Lon Chubiz Phd

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Salmonella is a bacteria most commonly known for causing the eponymous food-related illness. Due to their rapid reproduction rate and their ability to be propogated and maintained in a lab setting, they are commonly used in lab studies so that we can better understand how Salmonella causes disease in organisms that are more difficult to study. One area of interest is analyzing how Salmonella controls expression of the mechanisms that actually cause disease, called virulence traits, in response to the environment. In this study, antibiotic stress was used to analyze virulence gene expression. MarA is a gene that regulates ampicillin …

Biological Soil Crusts Of The Great Plains: A Review, Steven D. Warren, Roger Rosentreter, Nicole Pietrasiak

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Biological soil crusts (BSCs), or biocrusts, are composed of fungi, bacteria, algae, and bryophytes (mosses, etc.) that occupy bare soil, entwining soil particles with filaments or rootlike structures and/or gluing them together with polysaccharide exudates to form a consolidated surface crust that stabilizes the soil against erosion. BSCs are common in arid and semiarid regions where vascular plant cover is naturally sparse, maximizing the exposure of surface-dwelling organisms to direct sunlight. Although less prominent and less studied there, BSC organisms are also present in more mesic areas such as the Great Plains where they can be found in shortgrass and …

Probing Interactions Between Canonical Nox Domains, Akua Acheampong

Master of Science in Integrative Biology Theses

NAPDH oxidase enzymes (NOXes) reduce molecular oxygen to superoxide and other ROS. NOXes contain a catalytic core comprising a heme-containing transmembrane (TM) domain and a cytoplasmic dehydrogenase (DH) domain that binds the substrate NADPH and the cofactor. Previously, NOXes were only characterized in eukaryotes, but have recently been identified in prokaryotes, namely bacteria. Due to their constitutive activity and solubility in detergent, bacterial NOXes, such as Streptococcus Pneumoniae NOX, have emerged as a model for studying NOXes. Past research studies in NOXes have identified conserved, putative interacting regions at the interface of the TM and DH domains: the TM B-loop, …

Sickness Behaviors Across Vertebrate Taxa: Proximate And Ultimate Mechanisms, Patricia C. Lopes, Susannah S. French, Douglas C. Woodhams, Sandra A. Binning

Biology Faculty Publications

There is nothing like a pandemic to get the world thinking about how infectious diseases affect individual behavior. In this respect, sick animals can behave in ways that are dramatically different from healthy animals: altered social interactions and changes to patterns of eating and drinking are all hallmarks of sickness. As a result, behavioral changes associated with inflammatory responses (i.e. sickness behaviors) have important implications for disease spread by affecting contacts with others and with common resources, including water and/or sleeping sites. In this Review, we summarize the behavioral modifications, including changes to thermoregulatory behaviors, known to occur in vertebrates …

Isolating Oral Bacterial Species From A Single Donor Through A Multi-Step Detection Method, Khalid Al-Lakhen

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The human oral microbiome is one of the most complex microbiome communities in the human body and its role in maintaining health is not fully understood. Previous research shows that the transition from health to disease is accompanied by changes in community abundance and structure. To fully understand the symbiotic relationship formed between bacterial species that leads to the formation of a functional healthy biofilm structure, we must study the various structural relationships and subsequent molecular interactions among individual species within the biofilm. In this thesis, I have isolated a pure bacteria species from a single donor's dental plaque and …

Density Dependent Growth Of Pseudomonas Fluorescens In The Presence And Absence Of C. Elegans Predation In Liquid Media, Jack Landmann

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to understand the predator-prey relationship between C. elegans worms and P. fluorescens bacteria in liquid media. We were aiming to create a predation model of the relationship between these two species.

This study was performed through three experiments. Using 96-well plates, we were able to measure the change in optical density (OD) of these wells and calculate the growth rate. This growth rate was then graphed and analyzed. The first experiment contained P. fluorescens and KB liquid media, this study demonstrated that the bacterial population has a carrying capacity. We were also able to …

Total Synthesis And Biological Evaluation Of Siderophores: Key To Develop Iron Chelators And Tackle Antibiotic Delivery To Gram-Negative Bacteria, .Pratibha Desman

Research Symposium

Siderophores are molecules that act as iron carriers in bacteria. As they sequester iron from the environment and penetrate bacterial cells through active transporters, they can bypass the porin-mediated transportation in Gram-negative bacteria. Therefore, conjugating antibiotics that lacks the ability to pass through porins to siderophores and forming “sideromycins” has been proven as a way to battle antibiotic resistance in Gram-negative bacteria. My research will focus on synthesizing two siderophores, catenulobactin B and talarazine A as well as their analogs and exploring their potential to synthesize sideromycins. These molecules will be synthesized in a modular way and their cytotoxicity, ability …

Growth Of Diatom Fistulifera Alcalina In Bacterial Co-Culture And Comparative Mitogenomics Of Fistulifera Species, Erwin David Berthold

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Diatoms are excellent biological models of growth and intracellular oil generation. The productivity and compounds of diatoms, especially oils, support aquatic food chains and human medical and industrial needs. The qualities that made diatoms prolific producers, specifically diatom physiological features such as growth rates with intracellular lipid storage in alkaline environments, are however poorly understood. Another physiological aspect that remains unexplored is the effects of bacteria on the growth and lipid production of alkaliphilic diatoms. More studies, especially co-cultures, are needed for advances in diatom biology and strain performance for the algal biotechnological field. Besides physiology, diatom genetics using next-generation …

Environment–Host–Microbial Interactions Shape The Sarraceniapurpurea Microbiome At The Continental Scale, Zachary B. Freedman, Alicia Mcgrew, Benjamin Baiser, Mathilde Besson, Dominique Gravel, Timothée Poisot, Sydne Record, Lauren B. Trotta, Nicholas J. Gotelli

Biology Faculty Research and Scholarship

The importance of climate, habitat structure, and higher trophic levels on microbial diversity is only beginning to be understood. Here, we examined the influence of climate variables, plant morphology, and the abundance of aquatic invertebrates on the microbial biodiversity of the northern pitcher plant Sarracenia purpurea. The plant's cup‐shaped leaves fill with rainwater and support a miniature, yet full‐fledged, ecosystem with a diverse microbiome that decomposes captured prey and a small network of shredding and filter‐feeding aquatic invertebrates that feed on microbes. We characterized pitcher microbiomes of 108 plants sampled at 36 sites from Florida to Quebec. Structural equation …

Tick Extracellular Vesicles Enable Arthropod Feeding And Promote Distinct Outcomes Of Bacterial Infection, Adela S. Oliva Chávez, Xiaowei Wang, Liron Marnin, Nathan K. Archer, Holly L. Hammond, Erin E. Mcclure Carroll, Dana K. Shaw, Brenden G. Tully, Amanda D. Buskirk, Shelby L. Ford, L. Rainer Butler, Preeti Shahi, Kateryna Morozova, Cristina C. Clement, Lauren Lawres, Anya J. O'Neal, Choukri Ben Mamoun, Kathleen L. Mason, Brandi E. Hobbs, Glen A. Scoles, Eileen M. Barry, Daniel E. Sonenshine, Utpal Pal, Jesus G. Valenzuela, Marcelo B. Sztein, Marcela F. Pasetti, Michael L. Levin, Michail Kotsyfakis, Steven M. Jay, Jason F. Huntley, Lloyd S. Miller, Laura Santambrogio, Joao H.F. Pedra

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Extracellular vesicles are thought to facilitate pathogen transmission from arthropods to humans and other animals. Here, we reveal that pathogen spreading from arthropods to the mammalian host is multifaceted. Extracellular vesicles from Ixodes scapularis enable tick feeding and promote infection of the mildly virulent rickettsial agent Anaplasma phagocytophilum through the SNARE proteins Vamp33 and Synaptobrevin 2 and dendritic epidermal T cells. However, extracellular vesicles from the tick Dermacentor andersoni mitigate microbial spreading caused by the lethal pathogen Francisella tularensis. Collectively, we establish that tick extracellular vesicles foster distinct outcomes of bacterial infection and assist in vector feeding by acting …

Characterization Of Microbial Populations In Landfill Leachate, Umut M. Bicim, Hanna Fulford, Lori A. Hoagland, Alejandro R. Sanchez, Amisha D. Shah, Inez Hua

Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship

In the United States, municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills remain a potential mining source of recoverable materials, including but not limited to critical, precious, and rare earth metals found in electronic waste. This is possible due to collectible leachate that filters through MSW landfills, carrying metals, nutrients of value, and microbes—some of which may hold key metal bioleaching properties—within. The purpose of this study is to begin analyzing leachate from MSW landfills in the American Midwest to understand the composition of microbial communities within these landfills. Landfill leachate samples sourced in northern Indiana, representing the landfill process during unique times …