Date of Submission
Fall 2016
Academic Programs and Concentrations
Biology
Project Advisor 1
Dr. Gabriel Perron
Abstract/Artist's Statement
Abstract
Streptomycin is an aminoglycoside antibiotic that targets a broad spectrum of gram-negative and positive bacteria. Recent studies in environmental science have shown that antibiotic pollution in freshwater environments can have a detrimental effect on the biodiversity of the microbes living in the water. The literature fails to explain the effect that antibiotics have on fish living in water environments close to hospital effluents and wastewater treatment plants. This study aims to explore the effect that streptomycin has on the microbiome of zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a model for the human microbiome and as a measure of environmental impact of antibiotics. In the experimental design, larval zebrafish were reared in three different concentrations of streptomycin. I conducted a metagenomic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene in the V4 region of larval DNA. The results show that a microbial dysbiosis occurs with exposure to different concentrations of streptomycin. Larval zebrafish exposed to streptomycin experience a significant decrease in phylogenetic diversity and species abundance, along with a dramatic shift in the beta diversity and core microbiome compared to control fish. This shift in microbial community was also correlated with a decrease in survival rate. Finally, results from a quantitative PCR show that there is an increase in class 1 integrons, a strong indication of antibiotic resistance, in streptomycin-treated zebrafish. Taken together, these results show that the presence of streptomycin was strong enough to cause a significant dysbiosis in the fish, and that there are other antibiotic-host interactions occurring that affect the overall fitness of the zebrafish.
Open Access Agreement
On-Campus only
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Pindling, Sydney A., "A Metagenomic Analysis of a Streptomycin-Driven Dysbiosis on the Microbiome of Larval Zebrafish" (2016). Senior Projects Fall 2016. 57.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_f2016/57
This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.
Bard Off-campus DownloadBard College faculty, staff, and students can login from off-campus by clicking on the Off-campus Download button and entering their Bard username and password.