Date of Award

Spring 2013

Document Type

Restricted Thesis

Terms of Use

© 2013 Nina N. Kogekar. All rights reserved. Access to this work is restricted to users within the Swarthmore College network and may only be used for non-commercial, educational, and research purposes. Sharing with users outside of the Swarthmore College network is expressly prohibited. For all other uses, including reproduction and distribution, please contact the copyright holder.

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Biology Department

First Advisor

Amy Cheng Vollmer

Abstract

Triazole fungicides are widely used in both the agricultural and landscaping industries. As some of these fungicides have been shown to have toxicological effects on organisms besides the target fungi, bioremediation of areas contaminated with triazole fungicides is of interest. In this study, DCC002, a mixture of bacterial species with the ability to utilize the triazole fungicide epoxiconazole as its sole carbon source, was isolated from soil routinely treated with triazole fungicides. Growth of DCC002 was observed on solid media containing epoxiconazole, methanol, and a combination of the two as the sole carbon sources; however, growth in liquid media was only observed in the presence of methanol. Analysis of sequences of the V3 hypervariable region of l6S rDNA indicated that DCC002 is composed of three distinct bacterial species belonging to the genera Labrys, Comamonas, and Pseudomonas/Stenotrophomonas. The Comamonas and Pseudomonas/Stenotrophomonas spp. were obtained as single colony isolates, named DCC002A and DCC002B, respectively. Labrys portucalensis strain Fll, one of the top two BLAST matches for the Labrys sp., was obtained for use as a proxy for the Labrys sp. in further studies. Of these three strains, only Fll could grow on solid medium with epoxiconazole as the sole carbon source. Growth curve studies of these three strains, along with cross-streaking experiments, indicate that while DCC002A and DCC002B rely on the Labrys sp. in order to grow on epoxiconazole, the Labrys sp. does not seem to benefit from this relationship. Given its ability to utilize epoxiconazole as its sole carbon source, the mixture DCC002 has the potential for use in bioremediation.

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