creator Bunn, Dakota C. advisor Juarez, Oscar V. cholerae is a gastrointestinal pathogen which causes extreme watery diarrhea and results in over 120,000 deaths per year worldwide. It is especially prevalent in developing countries that lack proper water treatment and in areas struck by natural disasters such as hurricanes. P. aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that is ubiquitous in nature, and increasingly found in hospitals burn wards, sinks, catheters and other surgical equipment. Both bacteria are developing increased antibiotic resistance through several mechanisms, with one of the most common ones being the formation of a complex exopolysaccharide matrix known as a biofilm. In this study, using metabolic inhibition, we determined that Na+-NQR is essential for the growth of V. cholerae and P. aeruginosa in both nutrient rich and physiological conditions. We were also able to confirm that inhibition of this enzyme, in both growth conditions, resulted in decreased biofilm production, subsequently eliminating one of the main mechanisms for antibiotic resistance of these bacteria. Submitted by Erma Thomas (thomase@iit.edu) on 2017-11-07T23:15:48Z No. of bitstreams: 1 etdadmin_upload_500055.zip: 1630326 bytes, checksum: a8c8e357134aeff9cb40bbe805440a93 (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2017-11-07T23:15:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 etdadmin_upload_500055.zip: 1630326 bytes, checksum: a8c8e357134aeff9cb40bbe805440a93 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-05 M.S. in Biology, May 2017 2017 2017-05 http://hdl.handle.net/10560/4179 en Bacterial Growth Biofilm Na+-NQR Physiological Media Pseudomonas aeruginosa Vibrio cholerae Thesis born digital application/pdf In Copyright http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/ Restricted Access BIOL / Biology Illinois Institute of Technology Affiliated department