Acquisition of Instrumentation for an Undergraduate Research Program in Environmental Microbiology

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A grant has been awarded to Dr. Min-Ken Liao at Furman University to acquire instrumentation for an undergraduate research program in environmental microbiology. The requested funds are for the purchase of (1) a Biolog MicroStation System to monitor the microbial community, (2) a Variable Angle System to perform pulsed-field electrophoretic analysis on microbial genomes, (3) a Dual Light Workstation to document electrophoretic results for further image analysis, (4) Basic Software to estimate the microbial diversity and its phylogenetic relatedness, and (5) an Opticon System to quantitatively analyze PCR products from different organisms. These five instruments form a complete package necessary for the study of the microbial community. The immediate goal of this project is to address the following question. Whatis the impact of urban expansion on the biogeochemical processes that occur within the Enoree and Saluda River basins in South Carolina? Several approaches will be taken. First, the impact of urbanization will be studied by comparing the microbial community compositions of streams associated with different land covers along an urban-to-rural gradient. Second, the impact of nutrient loading on rivers will be studied by comparing the diversity of the microbial communities above and below two adjacent sewage treatment plants. Third, the molecular approach will be undertaken to study the diversity and the relatedness of bacterial isolates including antibiotic-resistant ones.This interdisciplinary research project attempts to reach two long-term goals: (1) to answer fundamental questions about microbially-mediated biogeochemical processes associated with cycles of nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon occurring in watersheds; and (2) to describe the extent of human impact on river systems in the Lower Broad River basin in the Piedmont of South Carolina. The research team believes that the study of the microbial communities holds the keys to the assessment of the human impact on waterquality and the microbial impact on biogeochemical processes.