Ohio Wesleyan Bacillus Collection Student Research

Merrick Hall, Room 204

This semester students in BIOL 328 Bacterial Physiology lab worked in teams on a laboratory project that they devised, developed, and conducted. Each group met weekly with Dr. Tuhela-Reuning and Maddy Russell during the first third of the semester to develop a research project that involved the Bacillus culture collection at OWU. The Bacillus collection contains over 3000 isolates of Bacillus obtained from wild songbirds in Ohio, Arizona, and Washington, and many of these isolates degrade feathers. Student projects involved quantification of bird feather degradation by several Bacillus isolates, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of biofilms and feather, possible correlation of biofilm production with speed of feather degradation, ability of Bacillus isolates to produce antibiotics effective against Gram positive and negative bacteria, and the ability to transform Bacillus isolates with pigment-producing plasmids. Students experienced the actual research process by troubleshooting problems, coordinating their lab work schedules, analyzing complex results, and working as a team. The final results of the projects will be presented by each team in oral and written formats.