Matt Bauer, Undergraduate Researcher

…Research

Broad-host-range (BHR) plasmids significantly contribute to prokaryotic diversity, adaptation, and evolution by conferring specific phenotypic traits to the host organism, including resistance to antibiotics, heavy metals, and UV light, as well as various pathogenic traits. Expanding current knowledge of BHR plasmids by analyzing and comparing their genome sequences, and learning how they evolved, may contribute in the future to the progress of more efficient treatments of infectious diseases, bioremediation, and countless other applications. Hence, it is the goal of the overall research project to isolate diverse BHR plasmids from environmental samples and obtain plasmid DNA of sufficient quantity and quality for whole genome sequence analysis by the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) of the Department of Energy (DOE). This plasmid sequence information will be used in the near future to analyze their genetic diversity and likely functions of accessory genes, to infer the origin of plasmid genes, and to determine the evolutionary history of plasmids. My recent research has aimed at completing the first steps of the project, i.e., isolating and purifying various BHR plasmids from soil and wastewater treatment plants and also at extracting DNA from plasmids previously isolated