WEEK 3: Cross Contamination & Gram Staining

On February 13, I went ahead and began another isolation plate for E. coli due to the amount of time that had passed by. As you can see in the images below, the original cocci or circular shape of E. coli cells had denatured into coccobacilli mostly because of how old the bacteria had gotten. In addition to the E. coli isolation plate, I began one for Bacillus subtilis.  Both isolation plates were placed in an incubator to stay overnight and be checked for growth the next day.

The next day on February 14th, as I observed the growth on the TSA Isolation plates for E. coli and B. subtilis, I discovered that the B. subtilis plate had been contaminated with a different type of microbe. With further observation, we came to the conclusion that the broth culture of B. subtilis had been contaminated considering how much precautions I had taken to inoculate the first isolation plate. Therefore, the culture that I used to inoculate was disposed of, and a new culture was used to inoculate a new TSA plate to isolate some colonies of B. subtilis. 
After this was taken care of, I proceeded to move on to observing the E. coli plate, and after seeing that it was good, I went ahead and did a Gram stain. this time the cell shape was circular and violet.

WEEK 4: The Start of the Bacterial DATABASE

Hello everyone! I hope everyone had a lovely long weekend, I certainly took the opportunity to catch up on sleep (finally). This week in the lab was a little exciting, for the conversation of the database for the bacteria research began and plans began to be made. The first thing that was made, was a list of all the possible tests that can be conducted in our lab to identify different characteristics of the bacteria that we will be looking at. In total there were seventeen tests, plus cell and colony morphology observations that can be conducted in our lab for each bacteria; which I am more than excited to be conducting. 

With the help of Matt, we both started a Google Sheet and began a database where the data gathered from these tests will be inputted, and will be shared between myself, Brittany, Matt, and Josh for now, since we are the main ones on this research project. It definitely took me a while to find an appropriate chronological order for these test to be done, but I have to give a huge shout out to Daisy for sharing her advice and experience with me to sort these test in a good order.  Once this step was done, the next task was to come up with a system on how we were going to input data. So we did a second sheet tab as a key, and we used this tab to create a drop-down for each Test column using the data validation tool. I this was probably the coolest part of this whole creation. At least for ME because I didn't have any experience with Google Sheets or Excel, so I can't deny the fact I felt kinda cool knowing this trick 😆.

The database still needs a lot of work of course, but what we have right now is a pretty strong base to build from. 

Week 2: ROOKIE MISTAKES

For week two, I was able to finally check for growth on my Petri dishes that I had previously inoculated with the bacteria commonly known as E. coli. 
I had gotten good results at first, but to my misfortune, I left the plates too long in the incubator and ended up drying up the media.
I pretty much should've known better, but I guess this is one way to learn.
That led me to finally take the correct precautions and do another set, which ended up giving me very lovely isolated colonies.

I decided to wait out the next procedure, which is to gram stain the bacteria so that I could identify if E. coli was a Gram-negative or a Gram-positive bacteria, and also determine the type of morphology it had. This is usually is determined by first, identifying under a microscope whether the bacteria is in pink color or a dark purple. Then we observe and determine if the bacteria has a rod, sphere, or spiral shape that will eventually help us determine the name for this bacteria.
I hope to get good, detailed pictures of this so that I can have a nice reference and visual image I can look back to. 

Below are some pictures of one of the Petri dishes I completely ruined, and one that I did correctly.

WEEK 1: The Start of my Research

Week one has definitely been a major rollercoaster.

Most of my classes got right into the nitty-gritty, almost making me play catch up! However, it was nothing too hard, considering I've gotten the rhythm of it all. Let's say the use of a planner has definitely helped me stay organized with everything happening for me this semester.

Aside from getting situated with my schedule, I began my research project on Wednesday the 29th of  January, which was quite exciting for me. I started with the first step: inoculating a Lawn Culture plate and a Streak Isolation plate for the first bacteria, Escherichia coli, in my research. All I could do in the meantime was wait as they incubated overnight. 
I was able to get a gram stain the next day, which has given me enough information to plan the upcoming tests to further learn about this bacteria. 

Below are a few of my notes and necessary plates collected in the early stages of the cultures.