Life Sciences Commons^™

Rainwater Harvesting Systems Metagenomics, Jade Riddle, Julia Parsons

Spring Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

Climate change induced water scarcity has led to an increasing interest in non-traditional water sources such as rainwater. However, there are lingering health and safety concerns due to the lack of research into the microbial communities contained within collection systems. To address this gap, water samples were collected from rain barrels around northern Virginia for microbial analysis. Each microbe within the sample has a unique genome subject to DNA testing. Environmental DNA was prepared from the collected water samples. To characterize the microbial community, both targeted sequencing and whole genome sequencing approaches were used. Using targeted sequencing of the 16s …

Investigating The Impact Of Oxidative Stress On Tetrahymena Thermophila Sirtuin,Thd 18, Emmanuel Dubuisson

Publications and Research

Sirtuins are a family of enzymes that fulfill various important biological functions. Investigators have looked for the implication of Sirtuin genes in cell signaling mechanisms, in the formation and silencing of heterochromatin, in the regulation of ion channels, and in the modulation of the cellular redox reactions[2]. Different model organisms have been previously used to conduct these studies; among them, there are yeasts, nematodes, and fruit flies. Each one has made some valuable contribution into the vast body of knowledge related to this field.

However, gaps in the understanding of Sirtuins functions still remain to be filled. In this optic, …

Comparison Of The Promega And Kikkoman Atp Devices, Ryan Hendrickson, James Nick Benardini, Kasthuri Venkateswaran

STAR Program Research Presentations

Planetary Protection (PP) is a scientific discipline that aims to protect other celestial bodies from microorganisms found on Earth by preventing forward and backward contamination. Forward contamination is bringing life from Earth to a given celestial body and backward contamination is preventing contamination of eventual sample return missions from Mars back to Earth. PP verifies that NASA Planetary Protection requirements are met in part via the NASA Standard Assay in order to support the launch approval process and to comply with international law. The NASA Standard Assay verifies these bioburden requirements by quantifying any aerobic, heterotrophic, and heat-shock resistant isolates. …

Analysis Of The Chondroitinase Operon Of Flavobacterium Columnare, Erin L. Sorlien

Senior Honors Projects

Analysis of the chondroitinase operon of Flavobacterium columnare

Erin Sorlien

Major

Cell and Molecular Biology, Chemistry

Advisor

Dr. David R. Nelson

Date

May 2, 2013

Keywords

Flavobacterium columnare, columnaris disease, chondroitin AC lyase, complementation, csl operon

Abstract
Flavobacterium columnare, an opportunistic bacterial pathogen of fish, is the causative agent of columnaris disease (CD). The bacterium is a Gram-negative rod that exhibits gliding motility and avidly forms biofilms. CD affects both wild and cultured freshwater fish, and continues to cause large economic losses to the fish farming industry. According to an investigation conducted by the National Animal Health Monitoring System, CD …

Survival Of B. Horneckiae Spores Under Ground-Simulated, Sneha Tharayil, Parag Vaishampayan

STAR Program Research Presentations

Increasing efforts to find and study habitable conditions and the possibility of life on extraterrestrial cosmic bodies have also deepened the need for planetary protection advancements to prevent possibilities of forward and backward contamination. Despite stringent precautions to ensure spacecraft cleanliness, a number of spore-forming bacteria, including the biofilm forming strain, Bacillus horneckiae have been isolated from spacecraft associated surfaces. B. horneckiae spores have demonstrated unusually high resistance to rigorous sterilization procedures, and extreme conditions, including intense UV radiation. This exceptionally high tolerance of extreme conditions demonstrated by spore-forming bacteria highlighted the need to assess the viability of these microbes …

Annotation Of The Bacteriophage 933w Genome: An In-Class Interactive Web-Based Exercise, Kai F. Hung

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.