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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Determining The Ecological And Physiological Factors Contributing To The Competitive Success Of Prochlorococcus In The Oligotrophic Ocean, Benjamin C. Calfee
Determining The Ecological And Physiological Factors Contributing To The Competitive Success Of Prochlorococcus In The Oligotrophic Ocean, Benjamin C. Calfee
Doctoral Dissertations
Prochlorococcus is a genus of extremely successful marine cyanobacteria. This success is realized through its pervasive biogeographical range and presence in almost all open ocean environments where it usually it the dominant phytoplankton. Limited capabilities of culturing and genetic manipulation of this organism have resulted in assumptions about this success overwhelmingly based on field observations. These studies have assumed adaptations for resource uptake and utilization in nutrient limited environments to cause dominance of Prochlorococcus over other photosynthetic microbes. In an attempt to definitively explain this through laboratory culture, we developed a culturing system to assay questions of nutrient limitation effects …
Systems Biology Of Microcystis Blooms, Morgan Michelle Steffen
Systems Biology Of Microcystis Blooms, Morgan Michelle Steffen
Doctoral Dissertations
Cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cHABs) degrade freshwater lakes worldwide. Accumulation of nuisance biomass and production of noxious secondary metabolites can result in an expansive impact on both lake ecology and the surrounding communities. The cHAB forming organism Microcystis aeruginosa is known to produce the toxin microcystin, a compound nicknamed “fast death factor,” which has been implicated in animal poisonings and human liver failure and cancers. M. aeruginosa inhabits a wide range of freshwater lakes around the world, such as Lake Erie (USA/Canada) and Lake Tai (Taihu, China), and is often a dominant member of bloom communities. Such systems are well-studied …