{"id":4928,"date":"2021-04-22T08:24:16","date_gmt":"2021-04-22T12:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/undergraduate-research-forum\/?p=4928"},"modified":"2021-04-22T08:24:20","modified_gmt":"2021-04-22T12:24:20","slug":"c04-p-competition-of-burr-oak-lake-complete-ammonia-oxidizers-and-ammonia-oxidizing-archaea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/undergraduate-research-forum\/c04-p-competition-of-burr-oak-lake-complete-ammonia-oxidizers-and-ammonia-oxidizing-archaea\/","title":{"rendered":"C04-P: Competition of Burr Oak Lake Complete Ammonia-oxidizers and Ammonia-oxidizing Archaea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An important step in the nitrogen cycle is the process called nitrification, which is performed by ammonia-oxidizing microorganisms (AOM): ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA), and complete ammonia oxidizers (comammox). The question being researched was \u201cwhen AOA and comammox are placed in direct competition for ammonium, who outcompetes who?\u201d Comammox were only discovered in 2015, so little is known about how they interact with AOA, and it is important to understand the microbes directly impacting the nitrogen cycle. The research was conducted by growing enrichment cultures of AOA and comammox, then incoculating them both into batch cultures and chemostats. Products of their metabolism were studied via colorimetric assays to ensure they were growing. During the months of direct competition, samples from both batch cultures and chemostats were taken for later molecular analysis (e.g. DNA isolation and qPCR). One major finding is that inoculation with equal biomass of culture to ammonium concentration leads to even growth rates of AOM, regardless of the initial concentration. The results regarding the competition are still underway and have yet to be concluded. Future research that could be performed based on the results are looking at the mRNA\/proteins of both AOM to see how the stress of direct competition affects their metabolisms, and how the composition of microbes that are dependent on them for biomass is affected by them being stressed. Next year I will be attending the University of California, Berkeley to pursue a PhD in Microbiology, so this project taught me how to develop my own research project, as well as critical thinking with regards to results. The new molecular and cultivation techniques will be needed as I continue to research microorganisms in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author<\/strong>: Matt Weaver<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graduate Student Advisor<\/strong>: Sabita Ghimire, Microbiology<\/p>\n\n\n\n