Department of Biology and Chemistry
Bacterial Functional and Ecological Genetics in Bioremediation
Remediation of contaminated water is a principal concern in water management and conversation. In agricultural areas, that remediation extends to pesticides as well as other pollutants. While not typical of most species, many bacteria have evolved the capacity to breakdown these types of foreign compounds. In order to effectively leverage this natural process in an applied ecological context, I am working with Dr. Arlene Haffa and John Silveus and their bioreactor project to describe the genomes of bacterial species that can remediate pesticides, the genetic mechanisms that are contributing to this metabolic process and community dynamics, and their distributional patterns in coastal waters.
