An Other Busy Week

On Monday, I worked on my abstract for submitting it on Estralla community college conference. We narrowed down my project to an examination of the "microbiology and genetics of agrobacterium." In my project, I characterize Agrobacterium by infecting different plants grow in laboratory. I already infected 15 Soy beans in three different ways and I have to wait three to four weeks for tumors growing on Soy beans.  Also, I genetically characterize Agrobacterium by two different method including RAPD (Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA) and RFLP (Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism) analysis. I want to look at morphological and metabolic properties of Agrobacterium by doing thing such as gram sting and growing in different type of media.

After finishing my abstract and submitting it for the esteralla Community college conference, I did gram staining on powder Agrobacterium that we cultured it in the TSA (Trypticase Soy Agar) media last week to be sure that I have a correct bacteria for infecting soy beans. The bacterium was gram negative. Then, I subcultured my Agrobacterium in the TSB (Tryptic Soy Broth) media.

When I checked my soy beans on Tuesday, I saw that 12 of them grew enough and they are ready for be infected and planted in to the pot that contains garden potting soil mix.

On Tuesday, I set up another gel for bacteria 5-8 because I couldn’t get a good result on Monday. Meanwhile, I started to transfer my soy beans from Vermiculite which is ideal for the germination of seeds to the garden potting soil mix but before that I had to infect my soy beans with Agrobacterium. I didn’t like to infect my Soy beans because I planted and grown them by myself but I didn’t have any choice, I had to do that.  Thus, I choose three soy beans that grown most and infected them in three different ways with a fresh Agrobacterium that I cultured in Brain Heart Infusion broth. For the first soybeans, I cut its stem with a razor blade a little bit then I injected Agrobacterium to that part with a syringe. For the second Soy beans, I injected Agrobacterium directly to the stem with a syringe.

 For the third one, I just mixed Agrobacterium with potting soil around the Soy bean’s stem and place it in the separate plant saucer. For the reason that Agrobacterium that I mixed with soil would go through water and I didn’t want other soy beans observe water that is polluted by Agrobacterium. I’ll monitor my three infected soy beans to see which way of infection would be more effective and accountable. 

Infected Soybeans after 7 days

Infected Soybeans after 15 days

A Fresh Start

I came to the school and work back from a short Spring Break. I was worry about soy beans that I planted them during spring break because college was closed Thursday through Sunday for Spring Break and I was not able to water them. Fortunately, my Soy Beans grew.

 

I purified DNA of eight different bacteria that are used in the Biosciences department laboratory and run PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) for them during spring break. On Monday, I used Agarose Gel Electrophoresis technique for the separation of bacteria’s DNA fragments.Then, I cultured Agrobacteria in the Brain Heart Infusion, 0.5 ml broth. Brain Heart Infusion (BHI) is a general-purpose liquid medium used in the cultivation of fastidious and nonfastidious microorganisms, including aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, from a variety of clinical and nonclinical materials.(bd.com)

On Tuesday, I set up another gel for bacteria 5-8 because I couldn’t get a good result on Monday. Meanwhile, I started to transfer my soy beans from Vermiculite which is ideal for the germination of seeds to the garden potting soil mix but before that I had to infect my soy beans with Agrobacterium. I didn’t like to infect my Soy beans because I planted and grown them by myself but I didn’t have any choice, I had to do that.  Thus, I choose three soy beans that grown most and infected them in three different ways with a fresh Agrobacterium that I cultured in Brain Heart Infusion broth. For the first soybeans, I cut its stem with a razor blade a little bit then I injected Agrobacterium to that part with a syringe. For the second Soy beans, I injected Agrobacterium directly to the stem with a syringe.

 For the third one, I just mixed Agrobacterium with potting soil around the Soy bean’s stem and place it in the separate plant saucer. For the reason that Agrobacterium that I mixed with soil would go through water and I didn’t want other soy beans observe water that is polluted by Agrobacterium. I’ll monitor my three infected soy beans to see which way of infection would be more effective and accountable. 

Animal Physiology

In my Biology class ,  we learned about the Animal Physiology. One of the interesting part was a bout

the four major tissue types in animals: Epithelial tissues, Connective tissue, Muscle tissues,and Nervous tissue.

 

Epithelial tissues or Epithelia are called sheets of cells which cover the outside of the body and line organs and cavities within the body. Epithelial cells work as a wall against mechanical injury, pathogens, and fluid loss because they are closely packed with tight junctions. Also, Epithelia cells form active interfaces with the environment. For example, Stratified squamous epithelium that exist the nasal passages is essential for olfaction, the sense of smell.

Connective tissue, is made up of a sparse population of cells scattered through an extracellular matrix, holds many tissues and organs together and in place. Connective tissue mostly contains of a web of fibers embedded in a liquid, jellylike, or solid foundation. Contained by the matrix are numerous cells called fibroblasts, which secrete fiber proteins, and macrophages, which engulf foreign particles and any cell debris by phagocytosis.

Three different kinds of Connective tissue fibers are Collagenous fibers are responsible for strength and flexibility, reticular fibers join connective tissue to neighboring tissues, and elastic fibers make tissues elastic.

Muscle tissues provide nearly all types of body movement. All muscle cells contain of filaments containing the proteins actin and myosin, which together allow muscles to contract. There are three types of muscle tissue in the vertebrate body: skeletal, smooth, and cardiac.

Nervous tissue functions in the receiving, processing, and transmission of information. Nervous tissue is composed of nerve cells and glial cells. Nerve cells transfer nerve impulses and glial cells function as support. In most of animals, a brain is an information-processing center which is formed of concentration of nervous tissue.

   

An other i interesting subject which was discussed was about the relationship between body size and metabolic rate per unit body mass in endotherms.The relationship between body size and metabolic rate is inverse. It means that small animals have higher metabolic rate because of the ratio between their body surface and volume is a great number (almost one.) Small animals eat more food compared to their body size. Because of their high metabolic rate, they burn relatively more calories than a larger endotherm. The ratio between their body surfaces and volumes in large animals is a small number. The amount of food that they eat is small amount relative to their body size. Therefore, their metabolic rate is low.