Skip to main content

Badal – Viewing Euprymna berryi as a host in Testing Vibrio Fischeri

 

Viewing Euprymna berryi as a host in Testing Vibrio Fischeri (2024)

Undergraduate: Klodia Badal


Faculty Advisor: Alecia Septer
Department: Earth, Marine, and Environmental Sciences

Euprymna berryi are cephalopods found in the Indo-Pacific Islands and are the first species to successfully receive gene editing through CRISPR-Cas9 that deactivated genes for two pigmentation enzymes. The creation of the "albino squids" allows for the optical access of the nervous system in a living cephalopod. This characteristic is bred through multiple generations, making them ideal for testing the luminescent marine bacteria, Vibrio fischeri, in the light organ. Similar to a past study observing Vibrio-squid symbiosis of V. fischeri and Euprymna scolopes squid, the symbiosis of Vibrio fischeri strains and E. berryi were observed to view what kind of strains colonize the cephalopod host, as well as their efficiency. The E. berryi squid were inoculated with the V. fischeri isolate strains WEB2, WEB4, WEB5, WEB9, HI2, ES401, and ES114 pVSV102 and were placed into a luminometer to measure luminesce, determining if the strains colonized the squid. Afterwards, dilutions were created to directly count recovered symbionts. The goal of this experiment is to determine if E. berryi squid are sufficient host animals when testing V. fischeri.