Adrenaline Rush

Yikes! Nothing like an adrenaline rush when you forget to utilize a test that’s crucial for your project. I am so glad we had a fellow STEM member to guide us in the right direction. I’m also glad that we kept our culture plates. If we didn’t I’m not entirely sure what would happen. We probably would've had an extremely hard time identifying the bacteria. We ended up scrambling to get the results for FTM. This test is important because it will tell us whether or not our bacteria is aerobic, anaerobic, or facultative.

Name that Bacteria

As this semester is rapidly coming to a close so is our research project. We have officially finished all of the tests that needed to be completed. The only thing left for us to do is take that information and start identifying our bacteria. I'm realizing that this may take awhile as we have about 30 or more specimens. Next week we will start to talk about our plans for our poster. I've never done one of these before so it will be interesting. Wish us luck!

Dreamy Draw

This has been a very busy week in the lab. I went hiking at Dreamy Draw on Sunday to gather more samples for testing. I have officially isolated 24 colonies this week. Meaning next week is going to be even busier as we will have to perform various tests on all of the individual colonies. I decided I would start to share some interesting facts about Creosote as I learn myself. Creosote bushes form symbiotic relationships (mutualism) with bacteria, fungi and algae. These microbial communities allow the Creosote to gather more phosphorous and nitrogen during rainfall. Making this desert plant more advanced than other desert plants.

The black parts of the Creosote are where the microbial communities thrive. (Bacteria, algae, fungi)

Dreamy Draw

Positivity!

Today while I was checking the tests we performed the other day, we finally had a positive Simmons Citrate test. This test can be used to determine certain coliforms (e.g. Enterobacter aerogenes). This bacteria can naturally occur in soil. This test helps us find out if a bacteria uses sodium citrate as it's sole carbon source. We also may have identified one bacteria so far for another one of our samples. It's called deinococcus radiodurans. This bacteria can survive in the most extreme conditions (cold, dehydration, etc.). It made The Guinness Book of World Records for the toughest bacteria.

Right Track

I finally figured out a system for testing the bacteria. After a few weeks of trial and error I am on the right track. Considering that I have so many tests to perform for one bacteria I changed my hours throughout the week to ensure consistency. This will also help me with prepping for my work the following week. Time flies when you're extremely busy. I can hardly believe that this semester is already halfway over. That being said I have some work to catch up on. I look forward to smoother weeks ahead.

Moving On

After a rocky start last week we are finally getting back on track. We had so much testing to catch up on. Some of these tests I’ve never performed before so it was awesome to see them in action. For instance, the catalase test, we took slides and placed our bacteria on them then put hydrogen peroxide on top of the bacteria. Only 3 of the bacteria possessed the catalase enzyme (positive). I’m looking forward to next week. We are going to learn how to make our own TSA plates and a few other things we will need for our testing.

Next weeks bacteria we have to isolate

Next weeks bacteria we have to isolate

Bumps in the Road

This week has not gone as planned. I have had a few setbacks with my project. Last week Mario and I were finally getting things together for our project which required a lot of research. So this week I finally thought I had everything down as far as the testing methods and such. When we came in this Tuesday to start making gram stains and testing the bacteria, we got a notice that the school was closing at noon due to the thunderstorms. The back of my house also got flooded the same day. Talk about adventures. I decided to not stress myself out and plan on starting anew next week. On the bright side,  I think we have finally found the perfect method of removing bacteria from the phyllosphere. 

Tween (used to remove peripheral proteins)