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.