production-analysis-sporosarcina-pasteurii-biocement-bricks-using

Production and Analysis of <em>Sporosarcina pasteurii</em> Biocement Bricks Using Custom 3D-Printed Molds for Unconfined Compression Tests

Cement is a key building material used in many structures across the globe, from foundations for homes to historical monuments and roadways. It is a ...

United States Air Force Academy

Robust surveillance testing is a key strategic plan to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks and slow the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic; however, limited resources, facilities and time often impair the implementation of a widespread surveillance effort. To mitigate these resource limitations, we employed a strategy of pooling samples, reducing reagent cost and processing time. Through utilizing academic faculty and labs, successful pooled surveillance testing was conducted throughout Fall 2020 semester to detect positive SARS-CoV-2 infections in a population of 4400 students. During the semester, over 25,000 individual COVID status evaluations were made by pooling eight individual samples into one quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. This pooled surveillance strategy was highly effective at detecting infection and significantly reduced financial burden and cost by $3.6 million.

Efficiency of pooled surveillance testing in academic labs to detect and inhibit COVID-19 outbreaks.

Delftia acidovorans strain D4B is an aerobic bacterium within the  lineage that was isolated from soil. The genome size is 6.26 Mbp, with a G+C content of 67%. The genome encodes enzymes potentially involved in the degradation of fluorinated compounds.

Draft Genome Sequence of the Bacterium Delftia acidovorans Strain D4B, Isolated from Soil.

Erratum for Harris et al., "Draft Genome Sequence of the Bacterium Delftia acidovorans Strain D4B, Isolated from Soil".

Per- and Polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) are a broad class of synthetic compounds that have fluorine substituted for hydrogen in several or all locations and are globally categorized as PFCs (perfluorochemicals; commonly called fluorinated chemicals). These compounds have unique chemical and physical properties that enable their use in non-stick surfaces, fire-fighting efforts, and as slick coatings. However, recent concerns over the health effects of such compounds, specifically perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOA, PFOS; PFOA/S), have led to increased attention and research by the global community into degradation methods. In this study, soil samples from PFAS-contamination sites were cultured and screened for microbes with PFOA/S degradation potential, which led to the identification of  It was found that  isolated from PFAS-contaminated soils was capable of growth in minimal media with PFOA as a sole carbon resource, and an observable fluoride concentration increase was observed when cells were exposed to PFOA. This suggests potential activity of a dehalogenase enzyme that may be of use in PFOA or PFAS microbial remediation efforts. Several associated haloacid dehalogenases have been identified in the  genome and have been engineered for expression in  for rapid production and purification. These enzymes have shown potential for enzymatic defluorination, a significant step in biological degradation and removal of PFOA/S from the environment. We hypothesize that bioremediation of PFAS using naturally occurring microbial degradation pathways may represent a novel approach to remove PFAS contamination.

Engineering and characterization of dehalogenase enzymes from  in bioremediation of perfluorinated compounds.

There are places on earth that are considered to possess extreme physico-chemical characteristics as they relate to life. Surprisingly, there are microbes that have adapted various strategies that enable them to form robust communities in these environments. The microbes that live in these environments, called extremophiles, are described as being thermophilic, psychrophilic, halophilic, acidophilic, alkaliphilic, barophilic, and so on. Given that extremophiles were not discovered until relatively recently due to a view point that the environments in which they inhabited were not conducive to life, it is reasonable to conclude that the concept of extremophiles may be hard to grasp for students. Herein is described a laboratory exercise adapted from laboratory exercises that use mesophilic catalase enzymes to illustrate the influence of physico-chemical parameters on enzyme activity. Catalase is an enzyme that accelerates the degradation of hydrogen peroxide to water and oxygen gas. In addition to mesophilic catalases, the catalase from , a hyperthermophile with an optimal growth temperature of 90°C, is used to highlight the adaptation of an enzyme to an extreme environment. A visual comparison of bubble production by the hyperthermophilic and mesophilic enzymes after heating at high temperatures dramatically illustrates differences in thermostability that will likely reinforce concepts that are given in a pre-laboratory lecture that discusses not only the extremophiles themselves but also their applications in biotechnology and possible role in the field of astrobiology.

Extremophile enzyme activity lab: using catalase from  to highlight temperature sensitivity and thermostable enzyme activity.

Curricular guidelines promote standardized approaches to coverage of essential knowledge and skills in undergraduate education. The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Microbiology were developed in 2012. Continuous, rapid growth of knowledge in science and a dynamic, changing world necessitate updates to these guidelines. As such, ASM formed a task force in the summer of 2022. The task force assessed the 2012 ASM Curriculum Guidelines considering advancements in technology, an understanding of an expanded role of microbes, and a broader scope addressing relevant social and environmental aspects of microbiology. Language in the updated guidelines was also modified to better include eukaryotic microbes, viruses, and other acellular microbes. The task force formed working groups, each aimed at revising specific sections of the 2012 ASM Curriculum Guidelines. The revisions to the ASM Curriculum Guidelines were reviewed by subject matter experts and education stakeholders. Feedback from this peer review was incorporated into the updated guidelines, and further comments were solicited from the ASM Conference of Undergraduate Educators (ASMCUE) attendees in November 2023 before these guidelines were finalized. In this article, we describe the rationale and development of updated ASM Curriculum Guidelines which identify foundational concepts that will serve to improve microbial literacy and that can be expanded upon to address more advanced and specialized topics.

Updated ASM Curriculum Guidelines describe core microbiology content to modernize the framework for microbiology education.

Wastewater surveillance is an important technique to monitor public health and is being studied extensively for pandemic prevention, force health protection and readiness, and as a potential early warning system for chem-bio defense. Wastewater surveillance has traditionally relied on techniques such as quantitative PCR or targeted sequencing, both of which are microbe- or disease-specific tools. Newer pan-viral metagenomics strategies may provide higher specificity for pathogens of interest, resulting in a lower false negative rate and reduced sequencing of undesired background nucleic acids. One such system, VirCapSeq-VERT, has been developed to target all vertebrate virus pathogens; until recently, its application has been limited to clinical samples. The objective of this study was to use VirCapSeq-VERT to interrogate wastewater samples from the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA), Colorado Springs, Colorado, to determine its utility in assessing complex samples and its potential application in public health surveillance.

Article	Year
Efficiency of pooled surveillance testing in academic labs to detect and inhibit COVID-19 outbreaks. Bioanalysis\| PubMed ID: 34355577	2021
Draft Genome Sequence of the Bacterium Delftia acidovorans Strain D4B, Isolated from Soil. Microbiology resource announcements\| PubMed ID: 34734765	2021
Erratum for Harris et al., "Draft Genome Sequence of the Bacterium Delftia acidovorans Strain D4B, Isolated from Soil". Microbiology resource announcements\| PubMed ID: 34817218	2021
Engineering and characterization of dehalogenase enzymes from in bioremediation of perfluorinated compounds. Synthetic and systems biotechnology\| PubMed ID: 35224235	2022
Extremophile enzyme activity lab: using catalase from to highlight temperature sensitivity and thermostable enzyme activity. Journal of microbiology & biology education\| PubMed ID: 38661418	2024
Updated ASM Curriculum Guidelines describe core microbiology content to modernize the framework for microbiology education. Journal of microbiology & biology education\| PubMed ID: 39431824	2024
Application of Pan-Viral Metagenomic Sequencing on United States Air Force Academy Wastewater to Uncover Potential Causes of Acute Gastroenteritis. Military medicine\| PubMed ID: 39545936	2024

J. Jordan Steel

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