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Sarah's primary research
interest was aquatic microbial ecology. She investigated the importance
of viruses in cyanobacterial mat obtained from Antarctic ice covered
lakes. Viruses are a ubiquitous, numerous, and diverse component
of biological systems. Many of the double stranded (ds) DNA viruses
are able to enter either a lytic pathway where infection is quickly
followed by lysis of the cell, releasing virus particles back into
the environment, or a lysogenic pathway, where the phage is maintained
within the host for several replication cycles.
Sarah was particularly
interested in the relationship between virus and host, and how this
relationship may be influenced by environmental factors. In the
future, she hopes to utilize techniques used in medical microbiology
to better understand viruses in aquatic environments.
Right: Microbial mat
bacteria and VLPs (virus like particles) stained with SYBR Gold
(1000x).
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Above: Cultured Trough
Lake Nostoc sp. fluorescing under blue excitation (1000x).
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