Abstract 2143 A Metagenomic Exploration of Aquatic Life in Jackson, TN Local Ponds

Lane College is a small, liberal arts, Historically Black College in Jackson, TN. The Division of Natural and Physical Sciences provides undergraduate research experiences for students majoring in biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, or physics. To increase inclusivity, all students within one of the five majors are encouraged to apply, regardless of GPA, classification, or previous research experience. This eight-week program features a bi-weekly professional development session and a symposium at the end of the program where students present their research findings. During the summer of 2023, seven biology students completed a metagenomics research study with the goal to explore the biodiversity of different local freshwater aquatic environments. The students collected water samples from four local ponds with metadata such as pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and GPS coordinates. Initial observations of aquatic life using microscopy and dichotomous keys were made. The DNA was extracted from the samples using ethanol precipitation followed by clean-up with the ZymoBIOMICS DNA Miniprep kit. DNA was amplified using the Nanopore Rapid PCR barcoding kit or the 16S PCR barcoding kit and sequenced with the Nanopore MinION Mk1C. DNA sequences were initially analyzed using the Nanopore Minnow and Epi2Me What's in My Pot Workflows. Each student explored the subsequent data to answer specific research questions about the biodiversity in each environment, such as the impact of pH, dissolved oxygen, whether the pond was static or free flowing, or the presence of different pathogenic or toxic microbes. Overall, they found that while there was some overlap, aquatic organisms varied in the ponds depending on whether the pond was static or free flowing, pH, dissolved oxygen, and location. Some of the students continued these research projects during the fall 2023 semester in the Biology Undergraduate Research course where they refined their research questions and analyzed the data using additional bioinformatics tools available on Galaxy. NSF EES 2011938.