S-STEM Scholar Jeremy Mathis' Blog: Week #7, October 17, 2013: Lima Sans Nodule: Not a 5 Star Resort in Perú!

After waiting six weeks for my precious legumes to grow, I sacrificed a Lima Bean plant I had grown indoors to look for nodules on its roots. It looked so sad and was aware of its fate. To my disappointment, there weren't any. I even had Matt double check just in case. At this precise moment, time came to a stand still, and my quad core 2.66 Ghz internal processors began to melt down.

I thought the nodules were a necessary evil so that the rhizobium would fixate nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it into ammonia so that the plants could use it to make protein. So, how does the plant do this without the nodules? I still need to investigate that. Darren?

I reboot my system and decided my next mission was to dig up plants from the garden and try to find nodules on their roots. ¡ Voilà ! I dug up 5 different plants and found 1 nodule. Now, riddle me this? I didn't find any nodules on the Lima Bean plant I grew indoors, but I did find one on the Lima Bean plant I grew in the garden. Before you get ahead of yourself, I used the garden's soil for my indoor plants. Any guesses?

So, my next step is to create a protocol for the preparation of the root nodule for rhizobium isolation and then proceed with my experiment. I will post the results of both next week. I need a fall break... Funeral services for my Lima Bean plant are being held in the garden tonight under the Full Moon.