Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Biological Sciences
Committee Chair
Tatyana Sysoeva
Committee Member
Luis R. Cruz-Vera
Committee Member
Sara Cooper
Research Advisor
Tatyana Sysoeva
Subject(s)
Competition (Biology), Lactobacillus, Microbiomes, Urinary tract infections--Alternative treatments
Abstract
The rise of antibiotic-resistant urinary tract infections (UTIs) has led to an increased interest in alternative treatment and prevention methods without antibiotics. Female urinary bladders host microbial communities that often contain lactobacilli bacteria. Many lactobacilli are known for their ability to kill urinary pathogens in vitro and proposed as a probiotic treatment for UTIs. It is not known whether urinary lactobacilli compete with one another and what is the potential impact of introducing probiotic lactobacilli. Well-diffusion inhibition assays were used to detect competition amongst several urinary lactobacilli species. My results identified one species-specific and cell-contact dependent inhibition of Lactobacillus delbrueckii growth by Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus. Near-complete whole genomes of eleven new urinary lactobacilli strains of five species were established using hybrid de novo assembly and analyzed for homology and genetic markers such as plasmids, prophages, bacteriocin and antibiotic resistance genes, that are possibly involved in the interspecies competition.
Recommended Citation
Hintze, Kaylie, "Analysis of interbacterial competition amongst lactobacilli isolated from the human urinary tract" (2025). Theses. 742.
https://louis.uah.edu/uah-theses/742
