Acquisition of Instrumentation for an Undergraduate Research Program in Environmental Microbiology

福曼大学的廖敏肯博士获得了一笔赠款，用于为环境微生物学的本科研究项目购买仪器。申请的资金用于购买：（1）一个Biolog MicroStation系统，用于监测微生物群落;（2）一个可变角度系统，用于对微生物基因组进行脉冲场电泳分析;（3）一个双光工作站，用于记录电泳结果，以便进一步进行图像分析;（4）基本软件，用于估计微生物多样性及其系统发育关系;和（5）Opticon系统，用于定量分析来自不同生物体的PCR产物。这五种仪器构成了研究微生物群落所必需的一个完整包。本项目的近期目标是解决以下问题。城市扩张对南卡罗来纳州的Enoree河和萨卢达河流域的地球化学过程有何影响？将采取若干办法。首先，城市化的影响将通过比较与不同的土地覆盖沿着城市到农村的梯度流的微生物群落组成进行研究。其次，通过比较两个相邻污水处理厂上方和下方的微生物群落多样性，研究营养负荷对河流的影响。第三，将采用分子生物学方法研究细菌分离株的多样性和相关性，包括耐除草剂菌株。这一跨学科研究项目试图达到两个长期目标：（1）回答与流域氮、磷和碳循环相关的微生物介导的生态地球化学过程的基本问题;描述人类活动对南卡罗来纳州皮埃蒙特下布罗德河流域河流系统的影响程度。研究小组认为，对微生物群落的研究是评估人类对水质影响和微生物对生物地球化学过程影响的关键。

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.