December 11, Fluorescent Mushrooms and DoE

Today was split working with Courtney and Sarah.  Courtney took me to the old lab because we were going to look at hyphae, the cells that make up fungi, and the microscopes were located in the old building.  The lab was more than half the size of the old one!

From my reading I learned there are three types of hyphae cells: generative, skeletal, and binding.  Courtney stained a variety of fungi samples which we used fluorescent microscopy to view.  Beneath are some pictures of what we saw.  

Fungi grown in a liquid agar culture; the tendrils are hyphae.  I believe this one is skeletal hyphae.

Close up of the previous picture.

 

Hyphae without fluorescent light.

Hyphae from mold.

Hyphae from mold, the round circles you see clustered at the edges are spores!

You can also see the mold spores closer up here.  The round, circular blobs that cover the surface are the spores.

This is an image of a clump cell, a means for transporting between hyphae.  This image was taken on an RPI microscope.

 These images don't compare to seeing the real thing.
After spending a good deal of time looking at these samples, I met with Sarah to discuss my first DoE, Design of Experiment.  My first experiment is going to be helping with Sarah's research with the coffee grinds previously mentioned.  Over the break, I will be writing up my DoE, and when I return we will begin work.  I am going to be looking at the mushroom's reaction to light during its growth.  It's exciting to be applying my lab report writing skills to a real-life situation.