Wheat Take-All Disease (TAD) is caused by the effect of the soil-based fungus Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici on wheat crops. We as Pierce College Biology students in conjunction with other local institutions sequenced part of a strain of Pseudomonas fluorescens, L5.1-96 (P.f. L5.1-96), because of its known trait to supercolonize soil. Sequencing was initially achieved at Pierce College by linear sequencing reaction before being completed by Sanger Sequencing at Washington State University. Resulting data was then interpreted using FinchTV, and the NIH BLAST and tBLAST programs. P.f. L5.1-96 produces 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol (DAPG) which is a key component in Take-All Decline, the natural suppression of the fungus after several generations, in soils. Using Escherichia coli bacteria to clone 1.7kb long plasmids of the P.f. L5.1-96 strain, the plasmids were amplified and purified in order to discover genes relevant to the empirical objective to better understand this bacteria. Our DNA insert, the portion of data analyzed from FinchTV by cross reference with BLAST, aligned with several important enzymes related to antibiotic resistance and toxin metabolism, both of which could be key to supercolonization of soil. In addition, a phylogenetic relationship has been established using BLAST between P. brassicacearum, P. chlororaphis, and our strain of Pseudomonas fluorescens L5.1-96. The findings of the research could provide greater insight into what constitutes an effective biological control agent against TAD in Washington, and possibly other affected areas of the world.

Polymer based fullerenes are used as photovoltaics in solar panels. Fullerene C60 molecules have icosahedral based structures resembling geodesic domes. Fullerenes have convex polyhedral shapes which obey Euler’s topological rules. Their novel structures involve Golden ratios. Here we use vector calculus methods to calculate bond lengths and bond angles and provide estimates for the volume and surface area of the molecule. The calculated average bond length (1.4320 Å), edge length (2.4252 Å), bond angle (116o) are in good agreement with reported experiments. The estimated fullerene molecularvolume is 788 Å3 and surface area is 426 Å2. To understand the critical effect of dimensionality on volume, we have studied the volume of a hypersphere in n-dimensions. The project provides hands on exploration of real world problems and data visualization.