Bob Kuhn
@kuhnbobio.bsky.social
High school biotech teacher at Innovation Academy HS Interested in Wolbachia, arthropod/microbe symbiosis, and soil phages. Currently studying sex ratio distorters in A vulgare pullbugs in the US. https://sites.google.com/view/room223/classroom-research
Two graduated high school seniors had their phage genome and annotations published this summer. Their phage Twigg was our first ever to be assembled and annotated. Phage Information: phagesdb.org/phages/Twigg/ NCBI Publication: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/PZ49...
The Actinobacteriophage Database | Phage Twigg
phagesdb.org
Pillbugs are fascinating. Especially those populations under the influence of sex-ratio distorters. Here is a look at our recently published paper in @springernature.com Genetica. rdcu.be/fv2ny
Heterogeneous associations between sex-ratio distorters and mitochondrial haplotypes in U.S. populations of Armadillidium vulgare
rdcu.be
We are looking for pillbugs! We have analyzed 13 states and have our results in the publishing pipeline (below). If you live in a US state and would like to contribute to the research, you can collect and send us some pill bugs. Use the form below if you are interested. forms.gle/XUujrL1To2mN...
Some data 7 months into our giant Winogradsky column where we are trying to track microbe ecological succession over a year. We are using ONT 16S metabarcoding. The figure is only showing the percentage of reads at the family level and I chose 5% and above so I did not go insane.
Excited to share that our manuscript was accepted by Biorxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Heterogeneous associations between sex ratio distorters and mitochondrial haplotypes in U.S. populations of Armadillidium vulgare
Sex ratio distorters (SRDs) are heritable elements that bias offspring sex ratios to enhance their transmission. In the terrestrial isopod Armadillidium vulgare, feminization of genetic males can occur through vertical transmission of the sex ratio distorter known as the f-element, as well as through infection by Wolbachia, a maternally inherited bacterial endosymbiont that can alter host reproduction. Previous studies have focused on the distribution of SRDs and their associations with mitochondrial haplotypes in native European populations, but these patterns are poorly understood in the United States. In this study, we sampled A. vulgare in 12 states, screening individuals for Wolbachia infection, the presence of the f-element, and mitochondrial haplotypes. We found that Wolbachia shows a heterogeneous distribution across populations and haplotypes, in contrast with stronger associations in Europe. The f-element occurred in lower overall frequencies but showed a strong association with mitochondrial haplotype VI. These results indicate that patterns associated with SRD differ from those observed in Europe and suggest that multiple introductions and population mixing have shaped these distributions. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.
biorxiv.org
Please check out our pre-print! It was a 3- year high school study. Partially crowd-funded by experiment.com It was a very fun study and I hope it contributes to Wolbachia research in some way. Help us amplify if you can! doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
Heterogeneous associations between sex ratio distorters and mitochondrial haplotypes in U.S. populations of Armadillidium vulgare
Sex ratio distorters (SRDs) are heritable elements that bias offspring sex ratios to enhance their transmission. In the terrestrial isopod Armadillidium vulgare, feminization of genetic males can occu...
doi.org
Here are the 11 phages the Innovation Academy STEM High School second year biotech kids discovered this year.
Our FCS Innovation Academy students have discovered and isolated 17 Siphoviridae phages since 2022. One genome assembled and annotated.
Five months of 16S metabarcoding of bacteria in our large Winogradsky column. Nice ecologic succession and metabolic stratification is emerging. @oxfordnanopore.bsky.social
Nice Tiny Earth isolate producing an antimicrobial against Pseudomonas putida.
We set up our large (3') Winogradsky column in Sept 25 and have been sampling it each month, extracting DNA and using ONT 16S metabarcoding to track ecologic change. The graph below shows the first two months and the top 8 abundance families.
This interesting beast is growing in nutrient agar in a culture streaked from a cucumber pickling culture with aspartame about 5 months old. Any idea what it might be?
Today a student of mine working on a project was doing routine CO1 screening of A. vulgare pillbugs against haplotypes. She had one come back at only 50% match. So she blasted it…
am going to add some chloroplast and mitochondria DNA blockers to my @oxfordnanopore.bsky.social minion 16S metabarcoding PCR run tomorrow. Seems straightforward but looking for feedback if anyone has used these before in PCR.
