Science Honors Research 

Students studied the effects of crop rotation on bacterial assemblages in soil. Nanopore 16S barcoding revealed bacterial taxa and abundance, but did not show a significant change over two trials. 

Students studied the metabolic activity of bacteria in lakes using EcoPlate assays. They also looked at bacterial biodiversity using Nanopore 16S barcoding. They found interesting connections between metabolic diversity and biological diversity in all lakes, especially Lake Sinclair, the lake most susceptible to pollution. 

This study aimed to investigate the microbial communities present in Camembert and Cheddar cheeses, addressing the limited understanding of their composition and ecological roles. Nanopore 16S bacterial barcoding suggests raw milk cheeses like Camembert have more diverse bacterial communities, which may lead to richer flavors but also raise safety concerns. Cheddar, made with pasteurized milk, has a simpler and more controlled microbiome.

Our study aims to investigate the effects of anti-fungal medicines on yeast and elucidate the mechanisms by which resistance develops over time. There was very little difference between our positive and negative samples with the same genotype and concentrations, which means that the presence or absence of the caspofungin or PDR5 gene didn’t significantly affect yeast growth in response to the anti-fungal treatments. This may suggest that either the anti-fungal concentrations used weren't sufficient to create selective pressure, or there may have been issues with the experimental setup or procedure.

This experiment aims to determine whether subjecting the PETase enzyme in an E. coli K12 (K12) chassis to varying NaCl concentrations would affect the efficacy of PET breakdown as well as the growth of K12 itself. We determined that optimal PET breakdown occurred at the lowest salinity and while bacterial growth was more robust at higher salinities, PET breakdown was not. 

This study aimed to test whether bacteria previously infected with bacteriophages would cause them to lose natural resistance to the antibiotic kanamycin. Results were inconclusive to whether resistance was diminished. 

This study aimed to test the effects of microgravity on fungal resistance by Bacillus thuringiensis.  Complications in obtaining space microbes and building the clinostats from scratch, made this a fun learning experience, but did not yield measurable results.