New semester, new screening…

Here I am, again… and I have a story to tell!

This summer I had the chance to participate in a microbiology internship in the University of Wisconsin at Madison. I worked in Dr. Cameron Currie’s lab with bacterial cellulose degraders in leaf-cutter ant colonies. Leaf-cutter ants (LCA) are a unique group of insects that have evolved an advanced agricultural system based on a quadripartite symbiosis with the ant-fungus mutualism at its core. LCA actively cultivate fungal gardens, which they use as their food source, by providing the fungal cultivars with fresh plant material. In addition to the ant-fungus mutualism, LCA engage in symbioses with bacteria as well. We proposed that one role played by the bacteria in the ant-fungus mutualism is to facilitate the breakdown of cellulose. To test this hypothesis I had to apply techniques I alredy new from my research here in the UPR-H. In contrast, I learned new techniques that I know will be helpful in the research I will engage in this semester.

Last semester we didn’t have success with our urease screening and we decided to engage in an other screening, although we will work on our previous on at a later time. Accordingly, we will continue on screening the Cabo Rojo Microbial Salterns metagenomic library, but this time we will screen for genes capable of degrading soluble and insoluble sugars. That being said, we hope to find genes capable of degrading Dextran and Azo-barley Glucan which are the sugars we will be using. The techniques we will use for this screening are somewhat similar, at its core, to our previous one, but differ in complexity. We will use new techniques that will help us optimize our protocols and increase the number of bacterial cells submitted to the assay. For example, since there are 30,000 clones in each library tube, using micro titer dishes will be a very helpful tool.

We have big expectations for this semester, which promises to be a very exciting one. Stay tuned for future updates!

~ by Angel on August 24, 2008.