Kombucha Strains
Key Achievements:
*Successfully isolated microbes from various samples of kombucha
*Identified strains of bacteria and yeast using rRNA gene sequencing
*Characterized each of the isolated microbes to facilitate further experimentation
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Recapitulation
Key Achievements:
* In a process called "recapitulation," we successfully created kombucha by adding individual strains of microbes instead of a living kombucha culture containing the entire kombucha microbiome.
* Determined that the microbe Ga. hansenii is essential for the fermentation of kombucha.
* Determined that multiple strains of the yeast Lachancea fermentati are necessary for the fermentation of kombucha.
Conjugation
Key Achievements
*Unsuccessfully attempted conjugation with G. oxydans
*Performed minimum inhibitory concentration experiments between G. oxydans and spectinomycin, carbenicillin and kanamycin
*Determined that G. oxydans is resistant to spectinomycin and carbenicillin
Ethanol
Key Achievements
*Identified genes involved in the metabolism of ethanol to acetic acid in the bacterium Ga. hansenii.
*Designed Golden Gate parts for the assembly of these genes into a functional construct
*Used a bromothymol blue assay to compare changes in pH resulting from fermentation in multiple strains of Lachancea fermentati isolated from our kombucha
pH Sensors
Key Achievements
*Successfully created a neutral pH sensor.
*Characterized the P-atp2 Biobrick.
*Identified a potential pH sensor in Gluconobacter oxydans.
