Malt shakes any one?

To all of the hard working mentors and students in the program, have a great and happy holiday. This week in lab I have made yet another media to try and isolate these fungal cells. In my research I found an interesting article talking about endophytes actually giving plants tolerance to pollutants in the air, like from automobiles. I am amazed at how symbiotic these relationships are between endophytes and plants and just how much each one can gain from each other. The malt extract I am using is going to require 20 grams of malt extract and 9 grams of agar solution as a standard from the dichotomous key I am using.  
 

Here is the video from last week sorry guys.

I will have to admit even with all the stresses of life weighing me down, the time spent in lab and with the great minds that encompass that area has been a centering point for thought, laughter, and of course some science work. I am thankful for all the joy this class brings me. Now with that said I made corn meal agar and will make malt extract agar this week to go along with the new dicotomist key we found. That way I can see if the microbes I have isolated are in fact endophytes. These media should help differentiate and help isolate the fungus I am looking for. Untill next week here is a video for your enjoyment.

This is why endophytes are important!

Things seem to be taking turns very quickly. One day I am excited that I got something isolated and a pure enough sample to test on, and then the next day back at square one. I am going to try using different media's designed for fungus growth to see if that makes any difference. With the help of Josh (thanks again by the way) I was able to find a dichotomous key that will help me in identifying the microbes I am finding. They used MEA (malt extract agar) to inoculate there microbes as well as corn meal agar. Josh will be ordering these media for me so I can make some new plates and try again. Even though things are going slow, I feel I am making strides and improvements in the right direction. This video shows how endophytes have already helped the world and the problems of agriculturist everywhere.    

Lots of things growing and new media to inoculate!

 In this weeks lab I got to do more testing on my unknown bacteria from the grass seeds I broke up. It is a pure sample to test on. I found it is Gram positive bacillus bacteria, microaerophilic, triptone negative and fermented glucose, fructose, and lactose while producing gas in all three of them. I will also try to recreate the inoculation of a fungus I got to grow from sterile grass with the root and the tips of the blades cut after sterilization. I found many articles that showed scientist inoculation endophytes at room temperature instead of the 37 degrees I am currently inoculating at, so I am adding this variable to my process and going to see what happens at a different temp.   

Endophytes can clean up polluted and contaminated soil from explosives like TNT.

Well it is something.

I started today with little hope, seeing as i am still having trouble getting anything to grow with the techniques I found online. I was pleasantly surprised to find that one of the agars from a grass seed inoculation I had done last week had a nice colony on it, and only the one! After doing a gram stain I found that the unknown in question is a gram positive bacillus microbe. After making a TSB today I will do more testing to further identify the microbe tomorrow.