Although this is my last week of collecting data, I regret to inform you that I have no data to show. Let me explain.

Bacteria are pesky, capricious little buggers. They are organisms, and they do what they want, even if what they want includes dying. And I'm pretty sure that's exactly what my Lactobacillus cultures did to me this week. You see--bacteria can only live in a test tube in the fridge for a certain period of time until they die. That's why it's important to occasionally streak your plates to make sure that the bacteria are still growing. Luckily for me, I was able to rely on my other bacteria, e.coli and s.epidermidis to stay viable until I was done using them (although admittedly, my epidermidis  was on it's way out).

Lactobacillus being sassy.

However, this week, I knew something sketchy was going on with my Lacto. My overnight culture didn't grow, and I had to make my biofilms using a culture that had been growing for only three hours. When I made my biofilm plate, the OD of my bacteria was not ideal. It was 0.156 at 600 nm, and all my other cultures had been between 0.3 and 0.5 at the same wavelength. Then the morning of my dilutions, my biofilms had not appeared to grow, so I took their OD, which was around 0.23 and plate them anyway. An interesting thing to note, however, was that it took less time for my dilution droplets to soak into the agar than normal. My best plates usually had to sit for about half an hour before I could put them in the incubator, whereas this week's plates were ready in about 10 minutes. I'm not sure if the quantity of viable bacteria in the dilutions had anything to do with the absorption time, as it may have had to do with the quality of the agar, but it may be something interesting to investigate.

Middle tube: The culprit, Lactobacillus delbrueckii

But anyway, here's some good news. Two of my lab mates, Cody and Stephanie, made an undergraduate research poster with their biofilm work. Since our materials and procedures were similar, they used some of my data as part of their presentation. This means that I have my name on  poster. Woot woot! Although I can't add the poster on this blog due to formatting issues, the poster will be on display at the NAU Undergraduate Research event tomorrow, April 29. The title is "Effect of Decyl Rhamnoside on bacterial Biofilms." by Stephanie Arellano and William C. Crozier.
Decyl Rhamnoside is a surfactant, similar to my dishwashing detergents, and here is a comparison of the three:

Decyl Rhamnoside

NaCO3 (Sodium Carbonate in Cascade)

SDS (Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate) in Dawn detergent

 As for now, it's nice to know that I have some recognition in the scientific community. And as for the Lactobacillus plates that didn't grow, it leaves us with a prediction: a prediction that the detergents would not have really affected the bacteria much at all, similar to all my other trials. But if anyone really wants to make sure, it is open to investigation in the future. For now, however, these results are lost in the oblivion of uncertainty, and although we are not yet sure what would happen, we can make a reasonable, and hopefully accurate guess.


что случается, случается (What happens, happens)

Mackenzie