Not getting the results I need

This week Matt and I have decided to just try and isolate the endophytic fungus itself and not try and name all the other microbes we are finding in the grass samples which are mostly bacteria. I have started to do more research on other people isolating endophytes and the process in which they used. The photo bellow is showing enodphytic bacteria harbor within alfalfa. Every light spots on the photo represent a endophytic bacterial group.

Grass is growing

My grass is growing great already and next week I will start doing some of the process to find and isolate any microbes within the plants microbiome. Last semester I simply tried rubbing the blades of grass on a TSA plate and waited to see what microbes grew. This semester I found an article on an extraction method for endophytes that used ethanol to sterilize the surface of the plant and then with a mortar and pistol ground the matter in to fine particles and started streaking from there on to a selected media.

The grass seed that I ground up and started streaking last week only produced microbes on one of four of the agars I tested. The TSA plate #2 grew 7 different colonies of microbes for re-isolation and testing. I am first going to grow the unknown microbes in a TSB before attempting to isolate any further. I plan on starting the gram stains and re-streaks of the unknown microbes this week.

     

Lets do this!

The first week back in the lab and I already feel more comfortable and less like I am going to mess up everything I touch. I have started making different media's for isolating the microbes I will find on the  endophytic rich grass I have planted this week. I am using a different media from last semester called the Sabouraud agar as well as a TSA or soy media. The Sorbouraud agar or SDA is going to help isolate and define the microbes I find. I plan on using different isolation techniques this semester as well to reduce the sample size.  

(Sabouraud on top, TSA bottom)

Back to School!

I am so happy to be back in the lab and in the program to continue my research on plant microbiomes. Over the summer I continued to do research and experiments on my own about plant environments and how to adapt them manually and monitor those changes. Over the summer I started to grow various types of mushrooms and have had some success. This could be a possible research project for the semester if plant microbiomes are already being researched by someone.