This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number (EEC-2243923). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.
The undergraduate research program has been a great experience. Today is poster presentation at our final conference. The poster was a lengthy chore but worth the effort. I am almost have my elevator pitch down to a minute but it is hard for me to leave importatnt parts of the research out. My poster link is below:
This week I have continued to play around with different germination protocols to find the effective methods for germinating seeds of invasive plants. Non-invasive plants such agricultural species are selectively bred to readily germinate. Invasive have many subtle triggers for their seed germination including seed coats, light conditions, temperature restrictions, and /water conditions. Below are pics of the invasive lamb’s quarter and agricultural quinoa:
Quinoa SeedsLamb’s quarter seeds
Thank you to everyone that made this program happen: Dr. Ashcroft with the NSF grant, Dr. Kanier at Lone Star, Amoi Campbell – my mentor, Dr. Zafar with Rice. and Dr. McCary – head of the ecoolgy lab at Rice.
I value the research experience I received in the program.
My mentor’s doctoral research is in flux right now and will likely be substantially delayed until next spring of 25 for the final study. We are continuing to push forward through the cloud of delay, detours, and unexpected complications.
We planted 48 specimen of Rainbow quinoa (Chemonopodium quinoa) and lamb’s quarter (Chenopodium album). This is a prelimary stage in the project to set soil moisture standards. Around 100 germinants of each were planted and allowed a now two week growth period. Only 4 of the transplanted germinants were successful in surviving and growing in the greenhouse pots. The main study will need plentiful and growing plants of over 10 coger pairs of an invasive and non-invasive species to compare the root traits under flood and stress conditions and to set up the control plants.
The planted quinoa and lamb’s quarter – not many seedlings popped up.
The germination itself also is a choke point. The soil mix could also be a restrictive factor for seedling growth. Only one lamb’s quarter seedling appeared. There a number of hypothetical factors that could be halting plant growth including adverse changes in the soil due to autoclaving and/or soil density in the mix currently in use. These problems will require time, attention. and experimentation.
One of the quinoa that made it.This is our best grower.
One help in reaching the main study is a high rate of seed germination. My research this week is a short experiment with different germination methods. I am germinating the seeds of the quinoa and lamb’s quarter in 4 different treatments with two replicants of each. The germination treatments are filter paper, ground peatmoss, seedling soil, and agar in a temperature and light controlled incubator. Filter paper germination was the previous technique. The images below show the set up.
All the germination treatments in their petri dishes.Seeds are transferred to their germination medium in sterile environment in the fume hood to lessen opportunities for mold.Quinoa seeds counted and ready for a short 10 min soak in 1% bleach.All the seeds in the incubator in their 4 seperate germination treatments.
The germination rate data will be collected from these trials and will hopefully provide some insights that will get the research further down the road to the invasive vs. non-invasive plant study looking at root traits in flood and drought conditions. This germination data will be my reported study for my reearch experience.
Catch my final blog next week to learn of the twists and turns in this summer’s final episode of “As The World of Research Turns”.
A turning point has been reached. We have planted specimen and they are in the green house. This is the start of the study. We have planted the germinated sprouts of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) and lamb’s quarter (Chenopodium album). This is the early growth stage of the specimen and they will be watered daily and hopefully reach a healthy pre-disturbance state allowing them to be used to compare their growth under drought stress compared to optimal water usage.
There are 24 of each of the two species that will have a group of 6 replicates for the control and the subsequent drought stressed specimen for what will be two and three week periods after the initial 2 week starting early growth period. This makes 48 total specimen at this stage in the study.
Reaching this point has been the culmination of much work that has included seed germination, soil preparation, greenhouse set-up, aphid protective net tent set-ups, planting the sprouts, and setting a watering regimen. There have been hiccups along the way.
Each of the planted specimen pots has two sprouts to increase the likelihood that each will have one healthy growing plant after the two week pre-growth period. Only one healthy speciman will remain in each pot. Maybe the following pics will help explain the developing project:
The aphid tent.Framework for the aphid tent and materials.The planted germinants in their pots. They are in their initial pre-stress growth period receiving 200 ml of watering per day. They will be put in their drought stress condition in about two weeks.This is our first specimen to pop up. It is the non-invasive Chemopodium quinoa. We are looking forward to more arrivals.
We germinated a new pair of cogener seeds this week and got enough sprouts to begin the first planting stage of the study of underground traits of invasive vs non-invasive plant pairings from the same genus. One of the original seed (Johnson grass) choices did not have a germination rate sunstantial enough to allow it to be used for the first round of greenhouse planting. Johnson grass had required a complicated scarification protocol including a sulfuric acid bath.
The first pair was switched to lamb’s quarter and quinoa. They are relatives from the Chenopdium genus. Lamb’s quarter ( C. album) is considered an invasive weed and quinoa (C. quinoa) is an agricultural non-invasive plant. Seeds from both plants germinated sucessfully with a water germination without a complicated scarification protocol.
The cogener seedsThe sprouts in the incubatorSprouts from the quinoa.
On the upcoming Monday the Chenopodium sprouts will be planted and grown in drought stress conditions and control conditions for periods of two and three weeks. There will be six replicates of each growth category which totals to 48 seperate plantings. Root traits data can be collected allowing for an analysis of the drought vs control replicates and the two vs. three week replicates. Root scans will one of the main data collection categories. The next study chapter of stage will add a flood stress category and six more cogener pairs of an invasive and non-invasive. This will require a substantial greenhouse space and we have been planning and setting up this logistical component this week.
I also autoclaved enough soil for this stage of planting next week. Around 8 autoclave cycles of 90 minutes each were needed to get the soil ready for this stage of planting. There is still a large amount of soil mixing and autoclaving for upcoming stages of the research.
An autoclaved bag of soil with the autoclave tape showing the stripes as an indicator of sufficient sterilization.
I enjoyed the field trip to the Sugarland Water treatment plant. The treatment plant extracts water from Oyster Creek that is augmented with water diverted from the Brazos River. Posted below are pics and captions of many parts of the process needed to produce potable water from the Oyster Creek surface water supply:
The bus to the treatment plant.The Owl logo on the bus.The plant control center.The fume hood in the lab room where water qualities are monitored about every 4 hours.Supply lines in the lab room that bring in water in various stages of the treatment process.The flocculant tank where particulates are adsorbed and eventually settled out.A continuation of the flocculant settling process in tanks that provide time and space for heavy particulates and solids to settle out and eventually be seperated from the water headed toward the filtration stacks.The water is separated from the flocculant and particulates in this device that slowly scrapes the bottom of this tank section.Water heading through more settling to remove as many particulates as possible before heading to the filtration.The water being pumped onward toward the filtration stacks. There is also a 40 micron filtration at this point in the flow.
Cross section of the 1 micron filter tubes that pass the water across the 1 micron filtration substrate.The full filtration tubes that water passes through after the water is clarified with a flocculant process. These filtration tubes can be back flushed and they are on a scheduled rotation.Chlorination tanks where the water receives the final chemical treatment in the process.
Processing approximately 150,000 ml (150 L) of soil mix consisting of 40% sieved cow manure, 40% sand, and 20% clay was the main chore this week. The soil needs sieving so that it can be easily washed from the harvested plant specimen to allow for a successful root scan. More details later.
Lots of manure.
This was the amount needed for a preliminary greenhouse study requiring soil for 48 potted specimens.
We also bagged and processed this soil in the autoclave so that each plant specimen is started in a controlled, sterile soil mix. Each bag was autoclaved for an approximate 90 minute cycle. Imagine for a second the lovely aroma of cooked cow manure and you probably don’t need a picture for the time being — I”ll get one next week when we finish the autoclaving.
Our lambquarters and quinoa did well with their germination rate at around 70% of the seeds sprouting in their petri dish nursery. This was good news.
Our babies.
The potted plant specimans will also need protection as they grow and each will a net tent to keep away the aphids. We will manufacturing our own tents and I started sewing lessons this week. Pictured is our Heavy Duty Singer machine.
Who knew scientists had to be a jack of all trades?
Week 2 is more research cloud. Adaptations have had to made in the preliminary stages of the research. The initial plants for the study had to be germinated from seed and the collected seeds of Johnson grass decided to be stubborn germinators. Johnson grass is in the Sorghum genus and it did not germinate in enough quantity to plants the sprouts for the initial stage of the study. The crop plant relative of Johnson grass that we are using is Sorghum bicolor and it germinated beautifully. The study uses cogener plant pairings of a native and a non-native (invasive) plant.
The germination of Johnson grass is notoriously difficult and it involved giving the seeds a sulfuric acid bath as part of the scarification seed preparation. More tweeking of the germination protocol for Johnson grass (Sorghum halapenses) is needed. The initial plant pair was switched to Chenopodium quinoa which is grain crop and an invasive “weed” cousin called lambsquarter, Chenopodium album.
We got sprouts from both of the plants and both germinated with a simpler water germination procedure. Lambsquarter on the left and quinoa on the right. The invasive still did not germinate with the same success as the grain crop but it did a lot better than the Johnson grass seeds.
It feels good to have a small success that allows the reearch to proceed. A little light shone through the cloud.
We also had to do some troubleshooting to get a good standardized soil for the study and that is a work-intensive process that involves manually seiving the soil and mixing it with sand and clay in measured proportions.
The soil mix that will be processed in large quantity for the study.My mentor, Amoi Campbell, working on the soil processing.Our seeds.
It will be exciting to get the initial study plants in the greenhouse. Stay tuned.
I have started my first official week of the START REU program at Rice Univerisity. It kicked off well with our orientation and a little bit of work at the McCary lab in the Anderson Bio Lab building with my mentor , Amoi Campbell. I sorted mature Johnson grass seeds from the collected samples so that they can subsequently be germinated.
Mature Johnson Grass seeds with a rich “coca-cola” coloration
I enjoyed the orientation. I have explored the Coach GPT site that was presented to us by Tim Harrison from EPOG academy. I found the Uri Alon Ted-Talk about the realities of scientific research and the possible pitfalls of leaping into the unknown of scientific research a useful and thought-provoking introduction into a research project. Even in my short time spent starting my involvement in the research, I am experiencing the “getting stuck” cloud that is discussed in the Ted-Talk.
