Bacteria of the Sagebrush Phyllosphere...or Is It?
Faculty Mentor Information
Dr. Leonora Bittleston, Boise State University
Presentation Date
7-2023
Abstract
While previous work has made successful strides in characterizing the fungi that live on sagebrush (Artemisia tridentate) leaves, characterizing the bacteria that call these leaves home presents different challenges. We used a wash in water alone to suspend the phyllosphere inhabitants and the Oxford Nanopore minION DNA sequencer to sequence their DNA. Many cyanobacteria were described using the epi2me software as the primary component of phyllosphere bacteria. This led to different methods of investigating the taxonomy of our sequences and the likelihoods that they are nearly all from chloroplasts or mitochondria, despite their assignment as bacteria in the Epi2Me workflow.
Bacteria of the Sagebrush Phyllosphere...or Is It?
While previous work has made successful strides in characterizing the fungi that live on sagebrush (Artemisia tridentate) leaves, characterizing the bacteria that call these leaves home presents different challenges. We used a wash in water alone to suspend the phyllosphere inhabitants and the Oxford Nanopore minION DNA sequencer to sequence their DNA. Many cyanobacteria were described using the epi2me software as the primary component of phyllosphere bacteria. This led to different methods of investigating the taxonomy of our sequences and the likelihoods that they are nearly all from chloroplasts or mitochondria, despite their assignment as bacteria in the Epi2Me workflow.