Booth Id:
MCRO059
Category:
Microbiology
Year:
2021
Finalist Names:
Moudgalya, Pranav (School: University High School)
Abstract:
The decomposition of plant-litter, aided by the metabolic activity of plant-litter microbial
communities, is a vital process in nutrient cycling. Taxa such as Curtobacterium are involved in
litter decomposition via the utilization of carbohydrate active enzymes (CAZymes), which
depolymerize the recalcitrant polysaccharides of plant cell walls and tissues. The genes encoding
CAZymes have been well characterized in the Curtobacterium chromosome. Here, we explore
the potential for variation in carbon utilization traits on plasmids, a mobile genetic element
capable of sharing traits within microbial communities. We ask the following: what are the
proportion and types of carbohydrate utilization genes present on Curtobacterium plasmids from
plant litter and second, how do these genes vary among Curtobacterium plasmids from different
isolation sources? To address our questions, we analyzed 19 complete Curtobacterium plasmids
for their CAZyme profiles using dbCAN2 and identified 10 distinct families of CAZymes. We
found that glycoside hydrolases were the predominant CAZyme functional group identified on
the plasmids, in addition to polysaccharide lyases and carbohydrate-binding molecules.
Additionally, there exist differences between the types of CAZymes harbored on Curtobacterium
plasmids from grassland environments and plasmids from agricultural environments. To the best
of our knowledge, this is the first paper describing the compositional differences in the CAZyme
profiles of Curtobacterium plasmids from diverse environments.
Awards Won:
Third Award of $1,000