Research Initiation Award: Seasonal Mobilization and Acid Stress Response of Opportunistic Enteric Pathogen Communities in Freshwater Ecosystems

Paine College, Augusta GA

Investigators

Abstract

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities-Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) Research Initiation Awards (RIAs) provide support to STEM faculty at HBCUs including junior faculty who are starting to build a research program and mid-career faculty returning to the faculty ranks after holding an administrative post or who need to redirect and rebuild a research program. Faculty members may pursue research at their home institution, at an NSF-funded Center, at a research intensive institution or at a national laboratory. The RIA projects are expected to help further the faculty member's research capability and effectiveness, to improve research and teaching at his or her home institution, and to involve undergraduate students in research experiences. Paine College will conduct research on the role that rainfall plays in mobilizing bacterial pathogens which are linked to human health. The project will help build the research capacity at Paine College and will have a major impact on a large population of minority students. The research opportunities and modification of existing curricular offerings will provide undergraduate students with advanced skills in environmental science and enhance teaching and learning at Paine College. In addition, Paine College will enhance its outreach activities to the community by training students majoring in Education who will develop an online teaching module for high schools. The project will integrate water quality surveillance, microcosm studies, environmental sampling, traditional culturing and quantitative molecular analysis to assess the ecological implications of rainfall events on mobilization of four opportunistic enteric pathogens and elicitation of acid stress response (ASR) within a freshwater floodplain. The principle objectives are to: 1) characterize the role of rainfall events in mobilization of sediment associated bacterial communities into a seasonal wetland, and 2) characterize ASR elicitation of the bacterial community within a wetland and riverine system. Findings from this work will strengthen understanding of bacterial community structure and function in aquatic ecosystems, may aid in identification of seasonal environmental "hot spots" of bacterial pathogenicity and may transform paradigms of seasonally influenced bacterial diseases. This project has the potential to transform current mechanistic linkages of opportunistic pathogen mobilization into seasonal wetlands and the contributions of these aquatic ecosystems in conditioning bacterial pathogenicity and community structure.