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Microbial Masterpieces: Bacterial community profiling in the Hastings College art buildings
Author(s) -
Athy Sienna,
Tidwell Elizabeth,
Laederach Alain,
Solem Amanda
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.940.6
Subject(s) - microbiome , metagenomics , 16s ribosomal rna , biology , studio , dna sequencing , human microbiome project , amplicon sequencing , ecology , human microbiome , computational biology , bacteria , gene , genetics , visual arts , art
Several large initiatives such as the Human Microbiome Project (NIH), the Earth Microbiome Project and Microbiology of the Built Environement (Alfred P. Sloan Foundation) as well as many smaller scale projects are exploring the composition and dynamics of bacterial communities to better understand how microbes impact our world from ecology to human health. The advent of high‐throughput sequencing techniques allows sequencing of the variable regions of the 16S rRNA gene from many samples. The 16S rRNA sequence is useful for differentiating between bacteria due to the fact that the gene is present in all bacteria, but contains variable regions. These 16S sequences can be used to identify the diversity and composition of Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) to characterize the bacterial community. Here we profile the bacterial communities found in the recently used Art building and the newly constructed Jackson Dinsdale Art Center on the Hastings College campus. Both Art buildings include different types of rooms such as faculty offices, a glass blowing studio and a painting studio. From the collected samples, DNA was extracted and PCR was used to amplify and isolate the 16S rRNA v4 sequence. These samples were then sent for high throughput sequencing for further analysis. This is an ongoing study; initial samples were collected shortly after construction finished and we plan to continue monitoring the bacterial community profiles in the Jackson Dinsdale Art Center periodically now that the facility is in use. The results will contribute to our overall understanding of the microbiology of the built environment in general and specifically at Hastings College. Support or Funding Information This work was supported by the Student Development Fund and the Excelsior Scholar program at Hastings College.