Karen's 2005-6 Honours Project
I've got my Honours project for next year practically all sorted out :D :D I wanna start it now dammit.
Traditionally animals, plants and fungi have been identified, classified and divided by their morphological traits. However with DNA methods becoming more available to more people, taxonomic classification has turned to molecular methods of identifying and dividing taxa. Despite the advances in DNA technology, many techniques are still being refined. In the case of fungi, specifically ectomycorrhizal fungi, hardly any methods for DNA extraction have been detailed.
There are three main phases to my project.
[At the beginning I start with Phase 2, where I plant plants and innoculate them with known strains of ectomycorrhizal fungi. While they're growing, I go back to Phase 1.]
Phase 1: Grab some ectomycorrhizal fungi that have been growing on a petri dish (there's about 30 different taxa already growing). Extract DNA from these cultures, and identify them in pure culture, creating and refining my own DNA extraction technique.
Phase 2: Identify the fungi in the roots that were innoculated. This will put my methods to the test and see if I can actually identify the fungi I've innoculated, in vitro. Mayhaps there can be four or so strains of fungi in the one plant, and with the aid of DNA I may be able to separate out which is which.
Phase 3a: Time to go out into the field. Visit one of the oldest known mine rehabilitation sites and detail which fungi are present by morphology. Compare these to those morphologically distinct taxa found in undisturbed native sites.
Phase 3b: Then take molecular samples of the fungi in the rehabilitation site and see if it matches the morphotypes (ie. do we get an agreement between morphology and DNA when trying to identify different taxa?). Compare to the native site.
I'm excited by it :D It combines so many aspects of my degree and squishes them all together into one huge, awesome project. Not only do I get to do tedious problem-solving with my development of ground-breaking techniques, but I get to cultivate my own lil plants, and run around mine sites in landrovers and digging holes.
And because I'm doing it part-time, over two years, I'll be able to do things full-time people don't get to do -- like grow the plants myself.
W00t!
Traditionally animals, plants and fungi have been identified, classified and divided by their morphological traits. However with DNA methods becoming more available to more people, taxonomic classification has turned to molecular methods of identifying and dividing taxa. Despite the advances in DNA technology, many techniques are still being refined. In the case of fungi, specifically ectomycorrhizal fungi, hardly any methods for DNA extraction have been detailed.
There are three main phases to my project.
[At the beginning I start with Phase 2, where I plant plants and innoculate them with known strains of ectomycorrhizal fungi. While they're growing, I go back to Phase 1.]
Phase 1: Grab some ectomycorrhizal fungi that have been growing on a petri dish (there's about 30 different taxa already growing). Extract DNA from these cultures, and identify them in pure culture, creating and refining my own DNA extraction technique.
Phase 2: Identify the fungi in the roots that were innoculated. This will put my methods to the test and see if I can actually identify the fungi I've innoculated, in vitro. Mayhaps there can be four or so strains of fungi in the one plant, and with the aid of DNA I may be able to separate out which is which.
Phase 3a: Time to go out into the field. Visit one of the oldest known mine rehabilitation sites and detail which fungi are present by morphology. Compare these to those morphologically distinct taxa found in undisturbed native sites.
Phase 3b: Then take molecular samples of the fungi in the rehabilitation site and see if it matches the morphotypes (ie. do we get an agreement between morphology and DNA when trying to identify different taxa?). Compare to the native site.
I'm excited by it :D It combines so many aspects of my degree and squishes them all together into one huge, awesome project. Not only do I get to do tedious problem-solving with my development of ground-breaking techniques, but I get to cultivate my own lil plants, and run around mine sites in landrovers and digging holes.
And because I'm doing it part-time, over two years, I'll be able to do things full-time people don't get to do -- like grow the plants myself.
W00t!