week 1/28. Orginizing my thoughts

This week I did not spent as much time in the lab as I would've wanted to; it might have seemed like I was there a lot but I wasn't there for long periods of time. Even so, I was able to get a lot done in the short amount of time I had. I watered my seeds, which I don't forget to check anymore, I inoculated two plates of the following, YEB, TSA and Macconkey media with a 1% peptone solution mixed with soil from Phoenix College's garden, I prepared two tests of antibiotics for agrobacterium and rhizobium, I streaked a YEB plate specifically to get more isolated agrobacterium colonies and I found out agrobacterium grows really quick so I can't leave my YEB plate for too long in the incubator........... which reminds me that I didn't take it out of the incubator!!!  hopefully I won't have to redo it, although even if I do it will be fine; I like to inoculate plates.

     Since I don't think I have been very clear on what it is exactly that I'm doing and why I'm doing it here it goes. Agrobacterium has an interestic characteristic that separates it from other bacteria; it can transfer its genetic information into a plant making it an important tool in genetic engineering. I am simply trying to get to know this bacteria more closely. So far I've been able to verify that it is a Gram negative bacteria and that it is bacilli, rod shaped. I've also performed different tests like oxidase and catalase, the bacteria was positive to both. Tomorrow I should be able to see if agrobacterium is resistant to the antibiotics rifampicin and tetracyclin.

Furthermore, this project has allowed me to learned tons of things, from performing tests on bacteria to researching and making the best media for my bacteria. I am also growing 12 pea plants that I plan to test the pathogenicity of agrobacterium on. I am planning on doing this with two different kind of bacteria, agrobacterium tumefaciens and rhizobium leguminosarum. Rhizobium used to be called agrobacteria until it was reclassified which is why I keep calling rhizobium agrobacterium sometimes. If everything goes well, after infecting the plants with both bacteria (one per plant), I should be able to see tumors in the roots of the plant and in others above the soil.

By the way, 9 of my pea plants died due to special circumstances......... I didn't water them. Now I have replanted new ones, so I will have 9 peas without names, so if anyone is interested in naming a seed send me the names at blackboard.

Week 01/22/2013

Its a brand new year and the sun is getting brighter, both literally and metaphorically. I'm really excited because this semester I'll have a lot more time to actually complete my project and probably a second one as well. Last semester I was only able to get as far as my protocol but now I'll be able to complete the experiment. Just really quick though for those that are new to the S-Stem, my name is Jose Luis and I'm a biology major, now interested in genetic research. I have finished six semesters at Phoenix college and I will be attending ASU West in the fall, if everything goes well, with an associates in science.

Last semester I took it upon my self to do research with agrobacterium, a really cool bacteria utilized in the genetic engineering of plants. Sadly last semester was a short one and wasn't able to get too far in the project. This time around I have already made some cultures into a few media that I had to learn how to make. Basically I am to isolate agrobacteria from the environment and then infecting a plant to observe the results. The cool thing about this bacteria is that it is actually beneficial to the host, when it develops in the roots it increases the nitrogen intake of the plant. This specific type of agrobacterium, that grows in the roots, is called rizobium and its actually sold in stores to boost plant growth.

To speed up the process last semester Matt and Josh ordered a pure sample of agrobacterium that I used to inoculate a plate of YEB, a media that is great for growing agrobacterium, The image to the right contains the YEB plate that I'll be using from now on to make more cultures of agrobacterium. Since Rizobium is different from agrobacterium I also streaked other plates with soil that contains rizobium. This will give me more to experiment with.

This year I planted some peas, butter bean, to infect with agrobacterium and rizobium. Below there is an image of the twelve pots containing my plants. I got so excited planting them that I had to name them. It's been a week since I planted them and already two of them germinated to a point were they are coming out of the soil. And fun fact, Sora and Elise were the peas that germinated. I will try to upload more pictures of my plants as they grow.