lack of progress

I've had a horrid cold all week and so I have not been as productive as usual, in addition this week, the class I TA for turned in two pieces of homework for me to mark as well as completing their second midterm exam so I have spent a lot of time grading and not much time in the lab doing research. I've also been working on ordering merchandise such as t-shirts and tote bags for the Botany and Plant Pathology department to buy in time for Christmas and hopefully make a few pennies for the the graduate student association (GSA) of BPP to pay for student travel grants and coffee meetings! Plus I have a midterm on Monday in forest disease management so I am studying a little for that this weekend, and I can't wait for Thanksgiving next weekend and a nice long break away from the normal routine. The term is flying by, and I just can't wait for next term when I will not have to take any classes, and will be able to devote all my time to research and actually get things done! On the other had there is so much to do before the end of term and it is approaching fast...

About turn

Well, the second of my detached leaf inoculations had an equally high failure rate to the first try despite doubling the concentration of the inoculum and meticulous set up and monitoring. I have come to the conclusion that this may be due to the state of the plants I took the leaves from, I guess they are just heading into winter and the leaves are thickened and suberised, and although the preliminary experiment I did in early September to trial the method had a 100% success rate this has not worked in the full scale set up I began in October. It's rather frustrating. I will now try dipping whole leaves to see what happens, if this still doesn't work I may just have to put this off until the growing season begins next year.

In other projects I am trying to make inoculum for the farm experiment but that is proving tricky once again, even though I thought I had nailed a method which would work. Never mind. I am going to trial an agar inoculation method now to see if that might be more reliable. Since for this research the objective is to study the epidemic not the infection process so in theory it shouldn't make much difference how I inoculate so long as infection occurs.

Busy

This term has been so busy I have not had time to update this site with new posts. I am enjoying teaching the labs for plant pathology and I am hoping to do this again next Fall to fulfill the teaching requirements for the PhD program.

I am halfway through the Forest Insect and Disease Management class that I am taking and I've completed the insect collection for it. I now have to make a pathogen collection for the second half of term.

In other news Curtis and I got engaged on the 14th of October, our 3 year anniversary so we now have to make plans for our wedding with will probably (not definately) happen next summer in the UK.

I am trying hard to keep my research projects moving forward despite having little time leftto devote to them after teaching and taking a 5 credit class. I have some time data for the whole plant dip experiments I was doing so that just needs analysing. I am now working on a detached leaf experiment and then on Friday I will hopefully set up another foliar inoculation at the farm with help from some helpful people in my lab. Being so busy I have been particularly appreciating the assistance of my colleagues especailly Kim and two undergraduate workers, Rob and Jamie. I am luck to work in a lab where so much support is available.

I am also starting to coordinate my graduate studies committee so that they can approve my program of study. I have asked three professors who have all said yes so I'm almost set to have my first meeting with them. These are also the people who will ultimately examine me to determine if I should pass with a PhD.

I am going home to England for just over 2 weeks at Christmas so that will be a nice holiday for me.

Zoospore Release

Here is a photo I took today looking through the microscope at sporangia releasing their last remaining zoospores. You can see one squeezing through the opening of the sporangium. The flagellated zoospores inside the sporangia were swimming around quickly looking for the way out before zooming off at great speed.

The new term!

I haven't had much to post here recently as I took a 2 week break to show my family around Oregon. It was a great time and I'm pretty sure I impressed them with the wildlife and geology of the region.

Now the new term has begun and I have a rather hectic schedule. I'm going to be a teaching assistant (TA) for introductory plant pathology this term. I'm also taking a 5 credit class in Forest insect and disease management which promises to be a lot of work but very interesting.

Somewhere I will find time to do some research too...

Soil Inoculation Assessment

Yesterday I assessed my soil inoculated plants and noticed some Phytophthora symptoms, however it has only been 2 weeks and it seems to me to be rather quick for such advanced symptoms to develop. Looking closer at this example in the annotated photo you can see the flagged branch with wilted, necrotic, and curled leaves, and the branch itself is also very dark in colour and necrotic. I feel that it is possible that these plants were not free from infection with Phytophthora when I received them from the grower and now that they are in my irrigated plot the conditions are ideal for the disease to develop. If you look closely it looks as thought a branch has been removed, possibly due to infection, to make the plants look good for sale but the inoculum was still present and has re-emerged in the wet conditions I have put the plants in. Alternatively, it is possible (and preferred) that the pathogen I inoculate the soil with (P. cactorum) has been splashed up onto this lower branch and infected it, or that the roots have become infected and thus cut water supply off to this first branch, causing it to wilt and die (expressing foliar symptoms caused by a root problem). In order to determine what is going on here I will have to try to isolate the pathogen from the margins of this necrotic tissue and grow it in culture to sequence it and identify what species it is. If it is what I applied to the soil then this is great news, if not it is contamination and not good news at all.

A plant with no chlorophyll

Monotropa uniflora commonly known as Indian pipe is a plant which has no chlorophyll. I saw this one in the forests near Mount Hood, Oregon. Since it can't photosynthesise without chlorophyll it acts as a parasite to fungi which are in symbiosis with trees and so it can get it's energy and food indirectly from a photosynthesising tree through a mycorrizal fungus which grows with the roots of that tree. These plants are commonly associated with American beech and Pine trees through Russula or Lactarius mushrooms. It's flowers are pollinated by bees. Information found at this website. Also see this wiki.