Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Tolerance Of Shewanella Woodyi For Electric Potentials And Heavy Metals As Biofilms, Christopher Thomas Mortensen

Honors Theses

Shewanella woodyi is a bioluminescent marine organism that is known to be metal tolerant and modulate the intensity of its luminescence with electrochemical potential. The viability of S. woodyi as a bioreporter for the toxic heavy metal zinc, copper, and silver was analyzed. Biofilms of S. woodyi was grown on marine broth agar plates and then exposed to various concentrations of each metal ion to evaluate biofilm response to the metal ions that were generated from an operating short circuited electrode containing either Zn, Cu, or Ag metal. The ability of the bacteria to tolerate the heavy metals and continue …