Item Details

title

MARINE BACTERIAL CHEMOTAXIS TO B VITAMINS AND B1 VITAMERS

author

Olusola, Olutosin Samuel

abstract

Interactions between marine phytoplankton and bacteria drive biogeochemical cycles, with the phycosphere facilitating these exchanges. However, the role of micronutrients in modulating phytoplankton-bacteria interactions is not well understood. This study investigates the chemotactic response of Vibrio alginolyticus to varying concentrations of B vitamins, including B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B7 (biotin), and B1 vitamers, 4-amino-5-hydroxymethyl-2-methyl-pyrimidine (HMP) and (4-methyl-5-thiazoleethanol) THZ. V. alginolyticus showed strong chemotactic responses to thiamine, positive at 2µM and negative at 20µM, and to riboflavin and biotin, both positive at 200uM. In contrast, no clear chemotactic response was observed to the B1 precursors HMP and THZ. These results suggest B vitamins may facilitate interactions between B vitamin prototrophs and chemotactic bacteria. This study also highlights microfluidics as a powerful tool for understanding microbial interactions. To further develop tools for exploring B vitamin-mediated microbial interactions, overlap extension PCR was used to generate a putative V. alginolyticus mutant lacking the chemotaxis response regulator gene, cheY. The putative mutant showed a deficiency in chemotaxis toward a known chemorepellent and will be further characterized with genomic sequencing.

subject

Chemotaxis

Microfluidics

Vibrio alginolyticus

Vitamin B1 (Thiamine)

Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)

Vitamin B7 (Biotin)

contributor

Floge, Sheri (advisor)

Cordy, Regina (committee member)

Glen, Marrs (committee member)

date

2024-09-13T08:36:35Z (accessioned)

2024 (issued)

degree

Biology (discipline)

embargo

2026-09-12 (terms)

2026-09-12 (liftdate)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/109851 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

type

Thesis