COLLABORATION IN BASIC SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING (COBASE)

Ilianan Ivanova (center) with Janet Chang, lab manager, and

Elizabeth Kline, research assistant

Sarah Macnaughton and her visitor, Iliana Ivanova of Bulgaria, worked together at the Center for Environmental Biotechnology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville from March through September 1999. The goal of this research project was to introduce Ivanova to molecular biological approaches to the in sutu assessment of microbial community structure in relation to environmental contaminants. The research involved extraction of total DNA from microbial biomass, polymerase chain reaction amplification of various gene fragments, denaturing gradient gel electrophoretic analysis of amplified material, and cloning, restriction-digestion and DNA sequence analysis of amplified material. Ivanova feels that her visit was very useful and reports that she has learned new methods in biological science and especially in microbial ecology. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis was not used in her laboratory back home in Bulgaria, but now she can introduce this method for investigation into her department at the University of Sofia. The other great benefit for Ivanova was getting acquainted with an enormous quantity of information about current trends in microbial ecology. She had unlimited use of the Internet and university libraries, not only in the United States, but all over the world as well. She retrieved many articles from different countries that she will take home with her to assist in her research and teaching. The last benefit Ivanova reports is an improvement in her written and spoken English. Four publications have been produced during this collaboration. Future plans for research center around testing their developing theories and models of the reflection of environmental toxicity in the structure of in situ microbial communities.