Thank you so much for the suggestions, I'll reach out to both! I would definitely love to capitalize on someone else's bycatch!!!

That's a fantastic idea, thank you for the suggestion! I'll reach out to them :)

For the confused: being faculty at UND was a one-year interim position after the passing of my former advisor, helping wrap up his research and teaching. I'm so grateful for the experience and this postdoc is a natural next step to a permanent position 🤞

A personal note: I'm the 2nd author on this paper, but the real star is my former undergrad mentee and best friend! ⭐️ Watching her grow as a researcher was an honor, and I hope she knows how proud I am of her 🩷

Implications?
✨ AGF’s ability to grow beyond their usual gut habitat could aid dispersal and host-to-host transmission
✨ This versatility could hint at exciting potential for industrial applications

We found that:
✅ AGF show robust growth at strongly anaerobic conditions (negative redox)
✅ Orpinomyces joyonii could grow (briefly) at +50 mV without cysteine
✅ Additional testing confirmed 4 other strains had some growth potential at higher redox potential

Redox potential measures how oxidizing or reducing an environment is. Negative = oxygen-free (like the gut), positive = oxygen-rich. We manipulated redox potential with cysteine hydrochloride 😮‍💨🧪