My Research

Lab photo

Nik has updated the lab members page on his website so you might like to see who I work with. also we took a lab photo this week and so that just went up on the page too (the reason I am standing sideways compared to everyone else is that I was trying to hide my left hand behind my back so you couldn't see my cast).

Counting Cells

In order to adjust the concentration of zoospores in the inoculum I produce for each species or isolate of Phytophthora that I am working with it is necessary to count the number of zoospores in small samples of the inoculum to estimate the concentration. Currently this is achieved using a haemocytometer:

This is a microscope slide with a very fine grid etched into it and when used with a calibrated cover slip the volume of the liquid sample viewed on one square of the grid is known and thus the concentration of particles counted can be calculated from this. Repeat counts are averaged to decrease the error of the estimate. This is a laborious and eye straining activity especially when there are many samples to be adjusted and a time constraint to adjust the concentrations before spores encyst.

This week I have been trying out a new piece of equipment called a 'countess' being developed by Invitrogen, a biotechnology company, I have it on loan for a week for testing and feedback. Here are some images of me trying it out.

I was counting zoospores which are smaller than 10 microns hence the spike in the graph at that size on the x axis. It looks as though there were a couple of sporangia in the sample too as there are 2 small spikes around 40 microns which is about the size of a sporangium which release zoospores (see time lapse slide show in the right bar of this page to see zoospores being released).

The Far West Show

Yesterday I went to the far west show in Portland at the convention centre. It is a big trade show for the region for anyone in the nursery industry or horticulture or anything to do with production through retail in the industry. I grabbed several catalogs from nurseries who could potentially supply me with the rhodies I am working with.

working in the containment hood with a broken hand

I am able to carry out most tasks even if a little slower than usual. Here is how I managed to fit an extra large latex glove on my cast, using tape to hold the spare fingers out of the way! My co-workers found it rather funny.

back to the research

this blog is meant to focus on my research so here are some results of my plant dip inoculations from the 9th of August. 'Cultivar' refers to the host plants, and 'lineage' refers to the pathogen isolates (there were 3 isolates used from each lineage), all were Phytophthora ramorum. This graph shows some nice differences so hopefully when I have the results from all three of the experiments I will be able to show some nice statistically significant findings. Cultivar A looks to be less suceptible than cv. B, and lineage 1 seems less virulent/infective/aggressive than lineages 2 and 3.

Garden Harvest

Although we've been picking at the tomatoes for a few weeks now this is the first big collection of produce from Curtis's garden! Yum! There's plenty more to come too.