Physical Sciences and Mathematics | Open Access Articles

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 …

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Physiological Constraints, Mechanisms, And Mineral Transformations Of Iron Reduction In Hyperthermophilic Crenarchaea, Srishti Kashyap

Doctoral Dissertations

Dissimilatory iron reduction by hyperthermophilic archaea occurs in many geothermal environments and typically relies on microbe-mineral interactions that transform various iron oxide minerals. However, the kinds of iron oxides that can be used, growth rates, extent of iron reduction, and the mineral transformations that occur due to this metabolism are poorly understood. This dissertation improves our fundamental understanding of the physiological mechanisms and mineral transformations of hyperthermophilic iron reduction using two model crenarchaea, Pyrodictium delaneyi and Pyrobaculum islandicum. Using growth yields and metabolite production rates, we demonstrated that a broad range of Fe(III) (oxyhydr)oxides of variable thermodynamic stability was …

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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 …

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The Catalytic Mechanism Of Electron-Bifurcating Electron Transfer Flavoproteins (Etfs) Involves An Intermediary Complex With Nad+, Gerrit J. Schut, Nishya Mohamed-Raseek, Monika Tokmina-Lukaszewska, David W. Mulder, Diep M. N. Nguyen, Gina L. Lipscomb, John Patrick Hoben, Angela Patterson, Carolyn E. Lubner, Paul W. King, John W. Peters, Brian Bothner, Anne-Frances Miller, Michael W. W. Adams

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Electron bifurcation plays a key role in anaerobic energy metabolism, but it is a relatively new discovery, and only limited mechanistic information is available on the diverse enzymes that employ it. Herein, we focused on the bifurcating electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF) from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrobaculum aerophilum. The EtfABCX enzyme complex couples NADH oxidation to the endergonic reduction of ferredoxin and exergonic reduction of menaquinone. We developed a model for the enzyme structure by using nondenaturing MS, cross-linking, and homology modeling in which EtfA, -B, and -C each contained FAD, whereas EtfX contained two [4Fe-4S] clusters. On the basis …

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Methanogens, Plausible Extraterrestrial Life Forms On Mars, And Their Tolerance To Increasing Concentrations Of Illite Clay, Chandler Kern

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Methanogens, some of Earth’s most primitive prokaryotic organisms, are candidates for possible life forms capable of inhabiting Mars. Specifically, four different species (Methanobacterium formicicum, Methanococcus maripaludis, Methanosarcina barkeri, Methanothermobacter wolfeii) were analyzed for their tolerance to the presence of illite clay. Illite is a crystalline mineral that has been identified from regions of Mars’s surface. Results indicated that all four species grew with some success in the illite at different concentrations. This experimentation with methanogens’ abilities to survive and reproduce in the presence of illite allows for a more accurate understanding of the potential capability of microbial …

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The Sponge Microbiome Project, Lucas Moitinho-Silva, Shaun Nielsen, Amnon Amir, Antonio Gonzalez, Gail Ackermann, Carlo Cerrano, Carmen Astudillo-Garcia, Cole Easson, Detmer Sipkema, Fang Liu, Georg Steinert, Giorgos Kotoulas, Grace Mccormack, Guofang Feng, James J. Bell, Jan Vicente, Johannes R. Bjork, Jose M. Montoya, Julie B. Olson, Julie Reveillaud, Laura Steindler, Mari-Carmen Pineda, Maria V. Marra, Micha Ilan, Michael W. Taylor, Paraskevi Polymenakou, Patrick M. Erwin, Peter J. Schupp, Rachel L. Simister, Rob Knight, Robert W. Thacker, Rodrigo Costa, Russell T. Hill, Susanna Lopez-Legentil, Thanos Dailianis, Timothy Ravasi, Ute Hentschel, Zhiyong Li, Nicole S. Webster, Torsten Thomas

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Marine sponges (phylum Porifera) are a diverse, phylogenetically deep-branching clade known for forming intimate partnerships with complex communities of microorganisms. To date, 16S rRNA gene sequencing studies have largely utilised different extraction and amplification methodologies to target the microbial communities of a limited number of sponge species, severely limiting comparative analyses of sponge microbial diversity and structure. Here, we provide an extensive and standardised dataset that will facilitate sponge microbiome comparisons across large spatial, temporal, and environmental scales. Samples from marine sponges (n = 3569 specimens), seawater (n = 370), marine sediments (n = 65) and other …

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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

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

Physiological Constraints, Mechanisms, And Mineral Transformations Of Iron Reduction In Hyperthermophilic Crenarchaea, Srishti Kashyap

Doctoral Dissertations

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

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Methanogens, Plausible Extraterrestrial Life Forms On Mars, And Their Tolerance To Increasing Concentrations Of Illite Clay, Chandler Kern

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles