The last and final week as been nothing short of crazy. I found the research conference to be an absolute joy and got most of the work done just in the nick of time. It was great seeing and hearing peoples ideas and overall enthusiasm for the research I was doing. I have been given a new vigor on science and the answers that I could possible unlock with hard work and some luck.

Week 13 has proven to be a tough week for me. I was not able to get as much done with my new unknowns from the desert Creosote plant as I wanted to but was able to finish identifying the other two unknowns from my drip irrigation plant here on campus. The wild grown Creosote plant had a total of 9 unkowns where I only had four with the plant grown on campus. I think this is a great sign and a start to answer my question of which plant would have more microbes in there microbiome.

Cool stuff I found about microbiomes

In Week twelve I was able to start on the first stages of inoculating my new creosote sample to find what is growing on it. I was able to identify a streptococcus and micrococcus genus on the drip irrigation plant here on campus and I only have two more unknowns to identify. This image is an MSA plate for further metabolic testing

In week 11 I was able to grab another creosote plant from the Papago mountains in Tempe Arizona while out mountain biking. I found that this plant is everywhere in the wild and has a stronger smell then the plant grown on the drip irrigation system. I am wondering how many different types of microbes I will be able to find on a wild plant from a drip irrigation plant.