This summer has been busy and extremely hot. Residing in Tucson, one cannot give up the opportunity to mention the furnace this city became for the past two months. But the monsoons are here, so things are good! I have been busy writing, working in the lab, working in the greenhouse, and mentoring. The writing is progressing well with two manuscripts demanding my attention. One is my research work which is currently with the co-authors for internal review while the second is a review topic. I have been asked about my opinions about review manuscript and I think they are a great way to: (i) learn about a brand new topic, and (ii) catch up with the latest in your topic. But I also feel that just like a research manuscript, a review article should also say a story, rather than just compiling a laundry list of facts. I have a good story in both my manuscripts and need to see
them to completion.
Lab work is me extracting DNA from LEO soils that were collected during November-December 2016 rainfall experiment.
I have 180 soils with extremely low DNA levels, and therefor an arduous task of extracting quantifiable DNA from the soils. I am fortunate to have a STAR fellow assist me in the extractions (she extracts the samples that need to be redone). This keeps my work on schedule and allows me to focus on writing when I am not working in the lab. I will send these samples for amplicon sequencing (where we will understand microbial community structure based on the abundance of one gene sequence) and metagenome sequencing (where we will evaluate all the genetic material present in our samples). Here in the photo, I am waiting for an incubation step to be over.
The greenhouse work has probably been the most physically demanding this summer. Working in a greenhouse in temperatures averaging 100 Fahrenheit even during mornings is not exactly a comfortable situation. However, the project is exciting and hence we power through! By we, I mean my intern and I. This summer I have the opportunity to mentor a Native American undergraduate through Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) for Native American students. We are testing the capacity of LEO soil to support plant growth. There are three treatments (LEO soil, LEO soil amended with 20% compost, and regular potting soil) with three seeds (1. Native Tarahumara Norton Bean, 2. Native Panic Grass, and 3. Mesquite). The idea is to see if we can use native seeds to grow plants in LEO soil with and/or without amendments assuming there is no scarcity of water. If you visit the LEO page or my previous posts, you will notice that LEO soil is not exactly plant friendly in the sense that it does not have structure nor enough nutrients to support plant growth. We are attempting to understand if native seeds of Arizona are resilient to these difficult soils and can germinate and eventually grow in such soils. We are in our two weeks of experimentation, and while the student has to leave in about 3 weeks time, I intend to keep the experiment going for an additional period of time. So far, we have observed germination in LEO soils (both with and without amendments). Potting soil is obviously doing exceedingly well. It is wait and watch policy now! The photo on the left shows the experimental set-up while on the right, the student is measuring plant height after 10 days of germination. Will write up our findings once the experiment is complete!
