The Effect of Pseudomonas putida and Klebsiella oxytoca on The Breakdown of Caffeine and Ketamine
Start Date
2023 4:00 PM
Location
Alter Hall Poster Session 2 - 2nd floor
Abstract
With the increase in chemicals being found in our environment, we need to look for ways to break down the chemicals in our environment and in ourselves. Two of some of the many chemicals in our environment are caffeine and ketamine, which have seen an increase in consumption and being leftover the environment in the last couple of years. Caffeine and ketamine are both broken down by N-demethylation pathways. Although some bacterial species can break down caffeine so far, no studies have shown that any bacteria can break down both. First, we searched databases for bacteria with gene systems (operons) for the breakdown of caffeine. We found that bacterial species, Pseudomonas putida and Klebsiella oxytoca, both have a similar operon for the breakdown of caffeine. We also chose these species because Pseudomonas putida is an environmental bacterium, while Klebsiella oxytoca is found in humans. Since there is a lack of research in this field of study, this project focused on developing methods to assess the ability of the bacteria to use caffeine and ketamine as nitrogen sources. The protocol established throughout this experiment starts with frozen cell stocks, to recovery from freezing, then transition to experimental media, and finally a method to assess cell growth over time. There have been an initial 3 trial runs and future studies will use this protocol to collect data over multiple replications of this experiment. Overall, the data will hopefully show that the two species of bacteria can both breakdown caffeine and ketamine by N-demethylation pathways.
The Effect of Pseudomonas putida and Klebsiella oxytoca on The Breakdown of Caffeine and Ketamine
Alter Hall Poster Session 2 - 2nd floor
With the increase in chemicals being found in our environment, we need to look for ways to break down the chemicals in our environment and in ourselves. Two of some of the many chemicals in our environment are caffeine and ketamine, which have seen an increase in consumption and being leftover the environment in the last couple of years. Caffeine and ketamine are both broken down by N-demethylation pathways. Although some bacterial species can break down caffeine so far, no studies have shown that any bacteria can break down both. First, we searched databases for bacteria with gene systems (operons) for the breakdown of caffeine. We found that bacterial species, Pseudomonas putida and Klebsiella oxytoca, both have a similar operon for the breakdown of caffeine. We also chose these species because Pseudomonas putida is an environmental bacterium, while Klebsiella oxytoca is found in humans. Since there is a lack of research in this field of study, this project focused on developing methods to assess the ability of the bacteria to use caffeine and ketamine as nitrogen sources. The protocol established throughout this experiment starts with frozen cell stocks, to recovery from freezing, then transition to experimental media, and finally a method to assess cell growth over time. There have been an initial 3 trial runs and future studies will use this protocol to collect data over multiple replications of this experiment. Overall, the data will hopefully show that the two species of bacteria can both breakdown caffeine and ketamine by N-demethylation pathways.
