Returning To S-STEM

I am grateful for having the opportunity to continue my S-STEM experience because it is a truly amazing place with wonderful people. During my first week, I had the chance to make my own TSA plates and also culture unknown bacteria. Most of the bacteria grew in 24 hours, others in 48 hours and about 2 showed no growth (currently growing at room temperature) (Figures 1-3). The purpose of this is to then be able to grow bacteria in a broth, perform a DNA extraction method and, eventually, be able to identify what kind of bacteria it is. All of this ties into this semester’s research project with WAESO, which I am very excited about! I will be working with isolated bacteria from leaves of a creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) and using genetic sequencing to identify the bacteria present. Fortunately, this will be a continuance of what I did last semester so I cannot wait to see what this research has in store!

Figure 1. TSA plates after the solution of TSA powder and distilled water was poured.

Figure 2. 14 TSA plates with unknown bacteria (0 hours)

Figure 3. 14 TSA plates with unknown bacteria after 24 hours