Daniel Murphy

Environmental and Biomolecular Systems

Phylogenetic Analysis of Microbial Communities in the Lower Columbia River and its Tributaries

The lower Columbia River system is a dynamic environment that provides

physical gradients across which microbial communites can be analyzed.

In addition to physical gradients, temporal and spatial changes across

the system can be studied to identify any patterns or relationships

that exist between microbial populations and their environments.

Microbial populations have been observed in the lower Columbia River

system and analyzed through small ribosomal subunit analysis and clone

library formation. Analysis of the microbial communities is

accomplished through single stranded conformation polymorphism

analysis- a cell independent high throughput technique. Clone

libraries are created from amplified 16s gene fragments so that

community fingerprints can be framed in phylogentic terms.  A number

of bacterial phyla and subphyla have been detected as well as some

archaeal phyla.