Transformations Presentation Slides: Cortland Access only

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  Identifying TTX Producing Bacteria in Bipalium kewense and Bipalium adventitium

  Elizabeth DuBois

  Terrestrial planarians such as Bipalium kewense and B. adventitium contain a neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin (TTX). TTX inhibits voltage-gated sodium channels, which blocks neurotransmission and paralyzes the muscles. Flatworms may use the toxin to stun their prey. Bacteria in the microbiome of organisms which contain TTX are believed to be the actual toxin source in marine animals. The microbiomes of terrestrial planarians remain unstudied, so it is unknown what bacteria are making TTX for them, or if bacteria are making the neurotoxin at all. In order to explore the culturable microbiomes of Bipalium flatworms, sampling of culturable bacteria is necessary because nothing is known about the genes that encode TTX production. Once isolated from worms, 16S sequencing will be used to identify the bacterial species and a competitive ELISA will be used to detect TTX production by these bacteria. My hypothesis is that the resident bacteria found in these planaria are producing TTX.

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  Response of stress related genes in Eastern Oysters exposed to plastic leachate

  Makiah Poli

  Millions of tons of plastic end up in the oceans, causing many different hazards to marine organisms. I studied how eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) respond to plastic exposure by measuring differential expression of stress related genes in plastic-polluted water compared to control conditions. Ten juvenile oysters were kept in each of ten beakers. Five beakers contained clean saltwater at 17ppt. Five beakers contained plastic leachate made from the breakdown of plastic pieces in 17 ppt saltwater. After 2 weeks of exposure, treatment oysters were moved to clean 17ppt water for an additional two weeks of recovery time. Gill tissue was removed from two oysters per beaker weekly for 4 weeks. I used complementary DNA synthesized from extracted RNA to measure relative expression of genes involved in stress responses via quantitative PCR. I found that exposure to microplastics and plastic leachate caused differential expression in the stress-related genes of eastern oysters.