Week #2 The Supplies Are In...Let's Begin...

My project is moving along quite nicely. We are only in week two and I have all of my research, supporting articles, supplies, outline and protocol. The ribbon cutting ceremony will be performed on Monday and all are invited. In all, I hope to have performed my entire project within 4-6 weeks; which will be just in time for our Estrella Mountain submissions. 

As I mentioned last week, I am looking forward to this opportunity because I will be taking a previous project which I successfully completed in the Fall of 2013 and will be adding on a revolutionary component. My work, although not rocket science, is very specific and detailed and may be hard to follow unless you know the basics about legumes, non-legumes, rhizobia, nodules, nitrogen fixation, and bio-fertilizers. Those are all excellent keywords if you wanted to do any independent research; however, the purpose of my blog will be to guide you along the way.

Last week's post explained how rhizobia infect the roots of legumes and form nodules. These nodules represent a symbiotic relationship with the plant by tapping into the plant’s energy source (carbohydrates: malate and succinate) and in turn provide the much need nitrogen for ammonia conversion, plant growth and increase the overall nitrogen present in the soil (nitrogen cycle).

Our goal for this project is to take different strains of rhizobia and inoculate non-legume seeds to determine if we can "infect" the rhizosphere of the individual plants and enhance/promote the quality of germination and growth. If we are successful, this would lead the way into providing alternative bio-fertilizers for agricultural purposes. If you had to choose between chemical based pesticides and a natural bio-fertilizer which yields the same results, which would you choose? 

A caveat before I close: if you are researching this or following along, do not get the scope of this project confused with Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR). Believe me, I was confused for a minute too. These bacteria are also considered as bio-fertilizers but the application has been around for decades. If you are interested, I direct you to the following page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhizobacteria. I am only using Wikipedia to give you a general idea of what's going on and to contrast PGPR with the scope of my project. 

I must be a nerd because I actually enjoy all of this! :) 

Rhizobacteria. (2014, October 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:59, February 5, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rhizobacteria&oldid=630000272