Flower Microbiome Lab
Fall 2021
University of Pittsburgh
BIOSC 0057
Ashmann Lab
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UV reflective and absorbing areas
Observed where UV reflecting regions and absorbing region are on an individual flower petal. Dark "bullseye" region is UV absorbing and outside is UV reflecting.
Colony Isolation and Morphology
We pressed our petals and examined the bacterial colonies after incubation. We selected a particular bacteria strain to analyze and T-streaked that bacteria to isolate a colony. Bacteria colony morphology greatly differed across petals.
PCR and Gel Electrophoresis
Successful PCR results showed strong peaks in the 16s rRNA which allowed us to analyze our isolated bacteria DNA and we followed this by performing BLAST analysis to identify the species and genus of our colony.
UV tolerance
In the UV tolerance assay, it is shown that all successfully plated species decrease in survival over time but to varying degrees, with the UV reflecting bacteria being more tolerant.
From this lab we concluded that microbiomes are more diverse on petals from rural sites and more UV tolerant in UV reflecting regions.
