Week 10, "What's in a name? That which we call Rhizobium, by any other name would still grow as swift."

I can't believe how fast this organism grows. My original plate, which I previously posted a picture of, was ridden by Rhizobia, so I had to perform a loop transfer into a new plate and by the time I checked on it, that plate was also over loaded with the bacteria. So, I am currently working with my 3rd plate and am only going to wait 18 hours before performing my micro tests on it. Tomorrow, if the plate is unusable, I am just going to transfer it to a plate and stand nearby and watch it grow.

My goal is to isolate a colony so that I can perform a gram stain and a couple other tests (e.g. glucose) to confirm that we indeed have Rhizobia; although all signs (e.g. cell morphology) are leading to Rhizobia. I will then test it against various antibiotics using the Mueller Hinton plates I poured earlier this semester. After reaching that point, I will sacrifice my other plants and trees to look for nodules and hopefully isolate different strains of Rhizobia.

Once I have accomplished this, I will move on to the next step of the project which will involve biochemical analysis. Due to time constraints, this probably won't happen until next semester. Due to the amount of preparation time with this project: growing plants both indoors and outdoors, killing plants and re-growing them, and waiting on the plants to mature enough to find nodules, I have had to be very patient in the process. Nevertheless, I still have had a lot to do in the meantime; research, pouring plates, planting, and gardening (e.g. tilling, planting, weeding).

Below you can see the Rhizobia in my second plate that was left at room temperature for 48 hours. I am coming in bright and early tomorrow to look at my 3rd plate and try to catch it before it outgrows itself. Rhizobia grows like wild fire! You know the old saying "a watched pot never boils"; apparently, this does not apply to Rhizobia. ~Carpe Diem~