Thursday, March 20, 2014

Back from spring break

Back from spring break and ready to start on the endophytes isolation. First I am going to grow the endophytic rich grass and then I am going to try and inoculate some agars and see what grows. Once I have grown some microbes I am then going to isolate those microbes and begin identifying them. Once identified I will grow each microbe with some soy beans at various watering levels and record the growth patters I observe. I may even use the grass grown in these for my soy bean grow if I can not isolate any microbes out of the leaves and vermiculite.


I have got the supplies

This week in my time in the lab I was able to finish some test on the plant I am working with in my abstract and I also got the necessary material to start my research project on endophytes. The grass I am planning to use has lots of fungi and bacteria to aid in drought tolerance and heat resistance of plants. This should give the plants I am going to grow a very healthy microbiome that I can test and isolate to find what is causing these beneficial factors in the growth cycle.