First Advisor

Jay Nadeau

Date of Award

Spring 6-13-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Physics: Biomedical Physics and University Honors

Department

Physics

Language

English

Subjects

Bacteria -- Fluorescence, Fluorescent minerals

DOI

10.15760/honors.1297

Abstract

One common method for identifying microbes present in fluid and non-fluid samples is fluorescent dye staining, in which samples are stained with a fluorophore - a molecule excited by an external light source that re-emits energy as higher-wavelength light. The excitation wavelength used greatly impacts the observability of microbes in the resulting fluorescence images, and deep ultraviolet excitation (200-280 nm) seems to provide the highest signal-to-noise ratio of any excitation range. By inoculating rock samples (gypsum and marble) with B. subtilis, staining with SYTO 9, Acridine Orange and FM 1-43 dyes, and imaging with deep UV (275 nm), near UV (365 nm) and visible (450 nm) excitation, we found that SYTO 9 and FM 1-43 autofluorescence provided identifiable signals under deep UV excitation, but not near UV excitation. Visible excitation showed that identifiable signals from dyes were weaker than the signals of chlorophyll. Further research of mineral/dye pairings using our method would enrich knowledge of fluorophore behavior under deep UV, near UV and visible excitation.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/38067

Download

Included in

Biophysics Commons

Share

COinS