Life Sciences

Calhoun, Emily; Staab, Ambur; Parrott, David (Westminster College)
Faculty Advisor: Parrott, David (Westminster College, Biology)

The saline soils comprising the shoreline of Great Salt Lake, Utah (GSL) provide a unique habitat for both halophytes (salt-tolerant plants) and the microorganisms that inhabit their rhizosphere. While plant diversity has been well documented at GSL, little is known about the microbial diversity in the rhizosphere. Here we present preliminary data characterizing the halophyte rhizosphere microbiome at two GSL locations; the more saline North Arm near the artwork, Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty (SJ), and the less saline South Arm on Antelope Island (AI). The rhizosphere of several plants along the shoreline at both SJ and AI locations was sampled. For each sample, plants were identified, soil salinity was quantified, DNA was isolated, and microbial cultures were established on either MGM or TSA medium. Numerous unique isolates were observed on both media, indicating the presence of both halophiles and non-halophiles in the rhizosphere. Subsequent 16s rDNA sequencing substantiated this, identifying a combined total 58 species of Archaea and more than 1100 Bacterial species among all collected samples. Our data suggest differences in the composition of rhizosphere microbiomes depending on location, soil type and salinity, and plant species. Decreased diversity of both Archaeal and Bacterial species was observed in rhizospheres at SJ compared to AI. Interestingly, a corresponding increase in the representation of halophilic Archaea at SJ was observed, possibly linked to the much higher salt concentration in the North Arm. Our results provide insight into the halophyte rhizosphere microbiome and expand our current knowledge of halophyte-halophile relationships.

2021 Abstracts

Is Coloburiscidae Monophyletic: A Test of the Gondwanan Hypothesis

January 01, 2022 12:00 AM

Meecham, Jarod; Ogden, T. Heath (Utah Valley University)
Faculty Advisor: Ogden, Thomas (Science, Biology)

This research aims to elucidate the phylogenetic relationships of the mayfly family Coloburiscidae
(Ephemeroptera) - the spinose gilled mayflies. This family is comprised of three genera: Murphyella, Coloburiscoides, and Coloburiscus. A unique characteristic of this family is that they demonstrate Gondwanan distribution being found in New Zealand, Australia, and Southern South America. In past studies, combined morphological and molecular data have questioned the family's monophyly. The molecular data that has been used mostly comes from five "traditional" genes used in insect molecular phylogenetics. We compared our newly generated phylogenomic data to these traditional genes. We used targeted capture next generation sequencing to generate over 400 exons from the mayfly genome to create a large phylogenomic dataset. Bioinformatic software was used to align the data and carry out phylogenetic tree reconstruction using maximum likelihood, Bayesian, and maximum parsimony analyses. The resulting trees support the monophyly of Coloburiscidae, confirming the hypothesis of this research.