Date of Award

9-6-2024

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Bioinformatics & Computational Biology

First Advisor

Michael Burns

Abstract

Heavy metals are a common pollutant from many industrial processes. In addition to the various diseases that these pollutants cause, they can also affect the composition and structure of the gut microbiome of many organisms which is in many cases associated with overall organism health. The effect of these pollutants on the gut microbiota of the spotted turtle is unknown. Here we characterize the gut microbiome of the spotted turtle and explore the effect of various environmental pollutants on its composition. We found significant differences in the composition of the gut microbiome based on turtle sampling location (geographic), turtle sampling time (season), and turtle sex as well as many significantly differentially associated taxa for each of those comparisons. Heavy metal analysis revealed much less significant changes and associations. Although this work does not present many significant differences in the gut microbiome based on heavy metal contaminants, it helps characterize the gut microbiome of the spotted turtle and can hopefully be used as a starting point for further work and analysis of the gut microbiome of at-risk reptiles and how it is affected by various environmental pollutants. This will also help provide more concrete evidence and impetus for the importance of ecological rehabilitation and restoration of natural areas, especially those on or near prior or current industrial operations.

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