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.

In week 10 of the internship I have started working on metabolic test for the creosote plant I pulled off of campus and I have started to inoculate colonies from a wild grown creosote plant that I found in the Papago mountains in Tempe, AZ. I am getting close to determining the different types of microbes found on a drip irrigation plant. The most important is the FTM test to determine aerobic or anaerobic.

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.