Urban Barcode Project Team Team jAGUAr
Program:
Urban Barcode Project
Year:
2020-21
Research Topic:
Biodiversity & trade
Taxonomic Group Studied:
Fungi

Project:

Do Mold Choose Their Meal Plan?
Students:
James Tu, Eva Sarder, Ruqi Zhang
School:
The Kew-Forest School, Queens
Mentors:
Akira Wong

Abstract:

Molds are a type of fungus that grow in multicellular filaments called hyphae. They reproduce through the release of spores into the air and can be found growing almost anywhere if the temperature and humidity allow for it. Nutrient content is an essential factor for mold growth, and due to the high diversity of molds, our team seeks to investigate how the nutrient content of various food items affect mold diversity in a home environment. In our experiment, we plan to test which macronutrient promotes the greatest mold biodiversity by setting foods that consist of only carbohydrates, proteins, and fats in our homes for 10 days before collecting and sequencing the mold that has grown on them. Using BLAST, we will identify the food item that promoted the highest mold biodiversity and create a phylogenetic tree to illustrate the evolutionary relationship between the different mold species that we collected.

Poster:

DNA Barcoding Poster
View team poster (PDF/PowerPoint)

Team samples: