Tony Dodge

E-mail: dodg0001@umn.edu

Thesis Advisor: Lawrence Wackett

Year entered: 2001

Degrees received:
B.S., Evolution, Ecology and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1994

Honors and Awards:

• NIH/NIGMS BioTechnology Training Grant, July 2002; renewed July 2003
• Internship at Cargill BioTechnology Developments Center, July-Aug. 2004
• Selected for and participated in scientific and cultural exchange program between the U of MN BioTechnology Institute and the Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Nara, Japan, November 2004
• MICaB travel award, 2004-2005
• Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, University of Minnesota Graduate School, 2005

Thesis research:
My research has focused on novel organic functional group transformations and microbial interactions with metals. I isolated a filamentous fungus (Fusarium sp. BI) from sewage sludge that could grow using bismuth subsalicylate as a carbon and energy source. The organic part of the molecule was degraded through catechol, and released bismuth ions were found to be complexed in intracellular polyphosphate granules (Dodge and Wackett, 2005). A Ralstonia pickettii strain was isolated that could grow using thioacetamide as a sole nitrogen source and transform other thioamide compounds with aromatic side chains (Dodge et al, 2006). Experimental evidence suggested involvement of an oxygenase enzyme in this metabolism. Current work is directed towards characterizing the genetic basis for conversion of 1-nitropyrazole to pyrazole by an Arthrobacter sp. soil isolate.

Publications:

• Dodge, A.G., J.E. Richman, G. Johnson and L.P. Wackett. 2006. Metabolism of thioamides by Ralstonia pickettii TA. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 72(12):7468-747676.

• Dodge, A.G. and L.P.Wackett. 2005. Metabolism of bismuth subsalicylate and intracellular accumulation of bismuth by Fusarium sp. strain . Applied and Environmental Microbiology 71:876-882.