Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Commons^™

Towards More Complete Metagenomic Analyses Through Circularized Genomes And Conjugative Elements, Benjamin R. Joris

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Advancements in sequencing technologies have revolutionized biological sciences and led to the emergence of a number of fields of research. One such field of research is metagenomics, which is the study of the genomic content of complex communities of bacteria. The goal of this thesis was to contribute computational methodology that can maximize the data generated in these studies and to apply these protocols human and environmental metagenomic samples.

Standard metagenomic analyses include a step for binning of assembled contigs, which has previously been shown to exclude mobile genetic elements, and I demonstrated that this phenomenon extends to all conjugative …

Exploring The Use Of Covellite As A Proxy For Corrosion Of Native Copper By Sulphur Reducing Bacteria, Manan K. Joshi

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

We are analyzing the effect of sulphate reducing bacteria on native copper, and using that evidence to further support the initiative of having a deep geological repository to store nuclear material. Sulphate reducing bacteria are a concern for the deep geological repository as they cause the corrosion of regular copper. However native copper has gone billions of years without corrosion, which could either mean that it had not been exposed to sulphate reducing bacteria over the billions of years, or native copper is able to withstand corrosion despite the contact of sulphate reducing bacteria. We can find out by trying …