S-STEM Scholar Madi Cook's Blog

The UV test conducted resulted in abundant growth of Xinjiangensis within the TGY quadrants, however there was zero growth observed within R2A quadrants of each respective plate. It is speculated that this may be due to TGY being more nutrient dense as opposed to R2A, however it is perplexing considering we should have observed some growth within R2A. As we are exposing various amount of UV radiation to the bacterium, nutrient dense broth aids in survival. In order for the DNA repair mechanisms to work within Xinjiangensis the enzymes require specific nutrients and amino acids. Due to the inconclusive results garnered, we need to redo the UV test, which will have to be put on hold in the meantime as we finalize our poster for the upcoming conference on Saturday. Throughout the majority of this week we have been working on our poster to present to the Arizona Nevada Academy of Science conference, specifically tweaking the abstract and layout of the overall poster.      ...

 Introduction  Our SIM media from the prior week was compromised so we had to remake SIM media and redo our SIM tests once again. We also progressed forward with the chemotaxis/mechanotaxis project in characterizing bacterium with chemoreceptors. This also proved to be a challenge as results were contradicting via UniProt and NCBI databases. Preparation for the UV resistance test was also enacted, onto ten different plates sectioned off into three different quadrants two of which were derived from R2A, while one quadrant was TGY. Each plate was blasted with various amounts of UV radiation spanning from 1k-10k.  Methods Reinoculation of S. Epidermis, E.coli, Xinjian., and C. Freudi into eight different test tubes to garner bacterium growth. The ninth test tube was the control factor for our experiment of comparing each respective bacterium. The sulfur, indole, and motility test was also redone due to contamination being present. R2A and TGY broth was curated once again to ...

 Introduction Upon returning on Monday we observed the several biochemical tests conducted on Xinjiangensis, Epidermis, Citroraptor, and E.coli in order to compare how Xinjiangensis fared. Unfortunately, our oxidase was contaminated thus setting us back into reinoculation again.  Methods In four seperate tubes containing 100 microliters of R2B broth each various bacterium was inoculated (E.coli, Citro raptor, Staph epidermis, and Xinjiangensis). Once inoculated, each tube was homogenized. From there, six plates were inoculated with the colonies from each of the respective bacterium. 4.5g of SIM media plus 0.19g of Agar was also prepared in the meantime. Several gram stains were also conducted in order to ensure contamination was not an issue, with which Xinjiangensis is gram positive.  Results Discussion C. Raptor garnered results for positive in motility and sulfur, and negative for the indole test conducted. E. Coli resulted in a positive outcome in regards to indole, a...