S-STEM Scholar Madison Jackson's Blog

  Intro After a few days of recuperation time, it was ultimately decided that the characterization of deinococcus sonorensis was effectively over for us, and we would be completely pivoting back onto the AMC project, as well as a more in depth approach into qPCR and investigating reference genes and their stability.  Results & Discussion To help further understand the activated methyl cycle, it was drawn out in skeletal structures, as shown above (note: does not contain all components of AMC). As the cell goes through the cycle, pieces of each are taken and substituted and create the substrates present in AMC. While we would have liked to start back up with RNA isolation and qPCR procedures for this project, there were issues with both e. coli and D. caeni samples that prvented us from doing so.  With the addition on the qPCR project we are now adding to the workload and having to better understand the process of qPCR and also what reference genes would best benefit u...

  Intro This week was entirely dedicated to poster making. Much of the time was spent organizing, reorganizing, writing, and formatting our poster. One of the things that was debated was whether or not sonorensis appears gram positive or gram negative on R2A. Methods Method for gram staining is exactly the same as always. Please refer to the procedure denoted in the first week of February's post. Results & Discussion  Shown above are gram stains of sonorensis, one sample grown in TGY and the other grown in R2A. Notably, the R2A sample was more spread out than that of TGY, showing the decreased plaque stability, though they do both appear gram positive. The debate of gram status may have come from using older samples for gram staining, or it could have simply been a contaminated sample of another cocci type bacteria which was mistaken for sonorensis in the sample. Conclusion With the ANAS conference in the rear-view, it is time to now look forward to possibly continuing thi...

  Intro Much of this week was dedicated to filling out our poster. What wasn't spent on poster work was spent on testing UV radiation tolerance again. The MRVP tests were done again and were again decided to be inconclusive. Method Method for UV exposure is exactly the same as last week, but R2A was exposed at levels of 1000, 1250, 1500, 2000, & 3000. TGY was exposed to 3000, 5000, 6000, 7000, 8000, & 9000. Results & Discussion Again, there was absolutely no growth on any of the R2A plates. The threshold is cleary far lower than we expected due to the media of R2A while, again on TGY, there was growth from the 3000 & 5000 plates. Conclusion Really all we have left moving forward is little details and pictures for the poster. All of the tests have been conducted at least once, but a few of them need to be redone still to see if we can verify a true positive/negative result.