Life Sciences Commons^™

A Diverse Assemblage Of Indole-3-Acetic Acid Producing Bacteria Associate With Unicellular Green Algae, Christopher Bagwell, Magdalena Piskorska, Tanya Soule, Angela Petelos, Christopher Yeager

Tanya Soule

Microalgae have tremendous potential as a renewable feedstock for the production of liquid transportation fuels. In natural waters, the importance of physical associations and biochemical interactions between microalgae and bacteria is generally well appreciated, but the significance of these interactions to algal biofuels production have not been investigated. Here, we provide a preliminary report on the frequency of co-occurrence between indole-3-acetic acid (IAA)-producing bacteria and green algae in natural and engineered ecosystems. Growth experiments with unicellular algae, Chlorella and Scenedesmus, revealed IAA concentration-dependent responses in chlorophyll content and dry weight. Importantly, discrete concentrations of IAA resulted in cell culture synchronization, …

Microbial Isolations From Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys Olivacea) And Eastern Pacific Green (Chelonia Mydas Agassizii) Sea Turtle Nests In Guanacaste, Costa Rica, And Standard Testing Of Cloacal Fluid Antimicrobial Properties, Erin Keene, Tanya Soule, Frank Paladino

Tanya Soule

Microorganisms associated with olive ridley and East Pacific green turtle nesting and potential cloacal fluid antimicrobial properties were studied in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. During the 2010–2011 season, bacteria and fungi were isolated from olive ridley cloacal fluid, nest chamber sand, and egg samples. Because of the lack of cloacal fluid bacteria isolated, the focus of the 2011–2012 season shifted to determine whether fluid contained antibacterial properties by using Kirby–Bauer disk diffusion assays, and cloacal fluid and sand samples were taken to see whether bacteria were unique to cloacal fluid. Assays were performed on 34 olive ridley and 5 East Pacific …

Ultraviolet Photoprotective Compounds From Cyanobacteria In Biomedical Applications, Tanya Soule, Ferran Garcia-Pichel

Tanya Soule

No abstract provided.

The Global Response Of Nostoc Punctiforme Atcc 29133 To Uva Stress, Assessed In A Temporal Dna Microarray Study, Tanya Soule, Qunjie Gao, Valerie Stout, Ferran Garcia-Pichel

Tanya Soule

Cyanobacteria in nature are exposed not only to the visible spectrum of sunlight but also to its harmful ultraviolet components (UVA and UVB). We used Nostoc punctiforme ATCC 29133 as a model to study the UVA response by analyzing global gene expression patterns using genomic microarrays. UVA exposure resulted in the statistically detectable differential expression of 573 genes of the 6903 that were probed, compared with that of the control cultures. Of those genes, 473 were up-regulated, while only 100 were down-regulated. Many of the down-regulated genes were involved in photosynthetic pigment biosynthesis, indicating a significant shift in this metabolism. …

Ammonia-Oxidizing Archaea And Bacteria Are Structured By Geography In Biological Soil Crusts Across North America, Yevgeniy Marusenko, Scott Bates, Ian Anderson, Shannon Johnson, Tanya Soule, Ferran Garcia-Pichel

Tanya Soule

Introduction Biological soil crusts (BSCs) can dominate surface cover in dry lands worldwide, playing an integral role in arid land biogeochemistry, particularly in N fertilization through fixation and cycling. Nitrification is a characteristic and universal N transformation in BSCs that becomes important for the export of N beyond the microscopic bounds of the crust itself. The contribution of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in BSCs has been shown, but the role and extent of the recently discovered ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) have not.

Methods We sampled various types of crusts in four desert regions across the western United States and characterized the composition …