Some bacteria living in very salty conditions, like those in Soap Lake, Wash., can use iron instead of oxygen to breathe. A new genus of iron-breathing bacteria, discovered by a UMR grad student, could help clean up metal-contaminated environments.
This research project is just one of five presentations UMR biology and geology students are making today and tomorrow at a regional conference of the American Society for Microbiology in Kansas City, Mo.
Other projects include:
- the effects of pH on antibiotic resistance
- bacteria living in very salty and acidic conditions that give researcher a view into what life might once have been like on Mars
- a study of pollen and algal spores trapped in sediments and salt crystals in Australian hypersaline lakes that will help researchers reconstruct the history of the area's environment
- vapors formed when mineral and biogenic oils are superheated that inhibit the growth of bacteria and could be used as antimicrobial agents
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