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Investigation of how the conservons may be affecting the polar growth in Streptomyces venezuelae

Mattsson, Jonna (2018) MOBK01 20181
Degree Projects in Molecular Biology
Popular Abstract
The dirt underneath your shoes might save your life

In the soil the bacterium Streptomyces venezuelae can be found. It scavenges for nutrients just like filamentous fungi do, by building a large network of hyphae also known as mycelium. At the tips of the hyphae, S.venezuelae grow their cell wall in a polarized fashion. They grow their wall by using a protein complex called the polarisome, almost comparable to a building site with different construction workers. Other proteins, from a set of genes called conservons, are believed to interact with this polarisome. Moreover, under certain conditions this bacterium can produce antibiotics as well, which has been utilized by the biotechnical industry. With more knowledge about the growth... (More)
The dirt underneath your shoes might save your life

In the soil the bacterium Streptomyces venezuelae can be found. It scavenges for nutrients just like filamentous fungi do, by building a large network of hyphae also known as mycelium. At the tips of the hyphae, S.venezuelae grow their cell wall in a polarized fashion. They grow their wall by using a protein complex called the polarisome, almost comparable to a building site with different construction workers. Other proteins, from a set of genes called conservons, are believed to interact with this polarisome. Moreover, under certain conditions this bacterium can produce antibiotics as well, which has been utilized by the biotechnical industry. With more knowledge about the growth behavior of S.venezuelae, the large-scale production of antibiotics can be optimized. For this reason, we have studied what effect these so-called conservons have on the growth of S.venezuelae.

Three mutants of the bacterium were looked at and compared to the normal one (wild type); one where a larger piece of the conservon was removed (called B9), one where an intermediate piece of the conservon was removed (called B20) and one where a smaller piece of the conservon was removed (called C1). To be sure that the gene-pieces actually were removed, a technique called PCR was used. The results indicated that B20 and B9 were lacking the desirable piece of the conservon, whereas C1 did not.

The mutants were grown with three different methods; 1. In flasks with liquid medium, 2. In small growth chambers and 3. On a piece of cellophane (i.e. on foil). After a certain time, the resulting growth was studied with microscopy, the resulting pictures were studied and the general impression noted. Statistical measurements were done on the pictures with the wild type and B9, where the distance between the hyphal tip to the first branching was measured. The statistics strengthened the general observations made, since they indicated a significant difference between the two.

The growth method including the cellophane pieces was the method resulting in the largest differences in growth between B9 and wild type (see figure), whereas the resulting growth from the other methods was hard to interpret.

It is hard to conclude anything but it is possible that these conservons are affecting the growth of S.venezuelae, although more studies need to be done to make more qualified conclusions. However, this project laid a foundation for future studies and if your life is depending on antibiotics it might be the dirt underneath your shoes saving your life.

Bachelor’s project 15 credits, MOBK01, spring term 2018
Supervisor: Klas Flärdh
Department of Biology, Lund University (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Mattsson, Jonna
supervisor
organization
course
MOBK01 20181
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
language
English
id
8962628
date added to LUP
2018-10-30 14:38:06
date last changed
2018-10-30 14:38:06
@misc{8962628,
  author       = {{Mattsson, Jonna}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Investigation of how the conservons may be affecting the polar growth in Streptomyces venezuelae}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}