Research Activities
As Director of UTEX, the
Culture Collection of Algae at
the University of Texas at Austin, Jerry Brand studies methods that improve the
services and quality control practices of UTEX. A cryopreservation research
program that was started in 1995 has the goal of cryopreserving as many strains
as possible in the Collection in order to minimize the cost of maintenance, to
reduce the danger of mishandling or mislabeling cultures, and to virtually
eliminate the possibility of mutation and selection of variant forms during the
time that algal cultures are frozen. Currently over 2,000 different strains in
UTEX are successfully maintained as cryopreserved cultures at liquid nitrogen
temperature.
In 2008 UTEX began a DNA "barcoding" program, with the ultimate purpose of
recording a gene sequence that demonstrates homology for all strains but is
likely to be unique for each different strain in UTEX. The ITS (Internal
Transcribed Spacer) gene has been selected for sequencing. At a minimum, the
complete ITS II sequence will be determined for as many strains as possible.
This reference information provides a primary criterion for determining if a
strain has been mislabeled, has been incorrectly identified, and/or has
undergone evolutionary alteration at the ITS II site.
Jerry Brand and associated laboratory personnel work closely with
Sunrise Ridge Algae to
develop methods of producing mass cultures of microalgae for commercial uses,
with the ultimate goal of producing a renewable source of transportation fuel.
Work in the Brand laboratory focuses on exploration of the diversity of algae in
UTEX, problems of scale-up, and exploration of methods for improving lipid
yields.
Other projects in the laboratory of Jerry Brand are directed toward an
understanding of the mechanism dinitrogen assimilation in non-heterocystous
cyanobacteria and the function of the recently discovered nodules of certain
cyanobacteria.
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