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Date of Award

4-30-2021

Document Type

Restricted Thesis: Campus only access

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Department

Biochemistry & Molecular Biol.

First Advisor

Dr. Dominique E. Williams

Abstract

A large obstacle to increasing the efficacy of antibiotics is bacterial biofilm formation. In this study, we sought to develop a strategy to increase the efficacy of antibiotics by measuring how the Ce3+ ion affects both biofilm formation and motility of Pseudomonas putida (P. putida) in the presence of three different carbon-energy sources: 2-phenylethanol, glucose, and citrate. Biofilm formation was characterized via crystal violet-binding assay, and P. putida motility was studied via a swimming assay. The results of the swimming assay were inconclusive, however, while we were unable to test 2-phenylethanol, Ce3+ was found to decrease the formation of biofilm in the presence of citrate and increase biofilm formation in the presence of glucose.

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