Josiah Morris, Anthony Cucca, Justin Gejo and Jacqueline Boyle

Abstract:

A study of the laboratory adapted B. subtilis showed they have multiple gene mutations compared to the wild type B. subtilis. This suggests these mutations might lead to better adaptation in the lab strains compared to wild type strains in a laboratory environment. The DeoR gene, which is mutated in the lab adapted strains have the same point mutation throughout the strains. Meaning it could be an important mutation to the B. subtilis in the laboratory environment. DeoR is a repressor for the DeoR operon which has three genes that it represses (nupC,dra,pdp). These genes are used for nucleotide metabolism. We looked at putting a mutation of these genes into a 3610 B. subtilis to see if there are effects of these mutated on the B. subtilis. Once the mutated 3610s were made, we ran tests to try and see the difference from the mutated 3610 by running growth curves, looking at sporulation, and biofilm development. These tests did not indicate that there was a difference between the mutated genes. In the future experimentation, we plan on running more specific tests in varying environments to see if a change occurs like growth curves in the stationary phase.