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.