Date of Submission
Spring 2017
Academic Programs and Concentrations
Biology
Project Advisor 1
Brooke Jude
Abstract/Artist's Statement
Fungal-mediated amphibian decline poses a severe, global threat for aquatic health. Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), the main pathogen responsible, has severely impacted the population levels of over 350 amphibian species, some to the point of extinction. While methods exist that can lower Bd in vitro, these methods either induce toxicity in the host or are not feasible to implement at a large environmental scale. However, current research on Oxalobacteraceae bacteria holds promise. Oxalobacteraceae strains have been widely studied for their antimicrobial properties and boast Bd remediation capabilities. In the present study, I establish a genomic assembly and annotation pipeline that can be utilized to investigate Oxalobacteraceae from the Hudson Valley region, a location both rich in Oxalobacteraceae isolates and low in Bd persistence. Specifically, I assembled and annotated the genomes of three violacein-producing Oxalobacteraceae (BJB302, BJB304, and BJB426), and one Oxalobacteraceae that produces a red-pigment (BJB412), in contrast to its violet pigmented family members. From these assemblies, I identified quorum sensing (QS) regulated genes and established how these data can be utilized to investigate the role Oxalobacteraceae QS systems play in Bd inhibition. Further understanding the mechanisms by which these bacteria are able to combat Bd has implications for environmental intervention, particularly for bioaugmentation strategies.
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
O'Brien, Kelsey Ann, "The Genomic Characterization of Oxalobacteraceae Isolates from the Hudson Valley region: A Proposed Genomic Pipeline" (2017). Senior Projects Spring 2017. 116.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2017/116
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