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Publication Date

2012

Document Type

Honors Project

Department

Biological Sciences

Keywords

Escherichia coli, Bacteria-Motility, Temperature-Physiological effect, Motility, Biofilm, Adhesion, E. coli, Fimbria, Pili, Flagella, UPEC, EPEC, K-12

Abstract

In this project, I sought to understand the effect of temperature change on visibile motility of various strains of Escherichia coli, as well as the comparativeeffect on the expression of various genes related to motility and biofilm formation. The temperature change I examined involves the transition from 37° to 23°, modeling the thermal transition from the internal environment of a human host to the external environment. Visibile motility means morphological motility, and was assessed using swarming motility assays on growth media with reduced agar concentrations. To determine gene expression data, I used quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction with genes related to motility, adhesion, and biofilm formation. The overall goal of this project was to model a temperature transition imitating the transfer from a human host to room temperature from 37°-23° for multiple strains of E. coli to determine the effect of temperature on physical movement as well as gene expression.

Language

English

Comments

56 p. : col. ill. Honors project-Smith College, Northampton, Mass., 2012. Includes bibliographical references (53-56)

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