Anyway, Wednesday I was waiting for Rose Bengal and coomassie blue stains to come in so I didn't have much to do. I put some grass seeds in a 5% solution of sodium hydroxie to soak for eight hours to soften their cell walls enough that a stain can penetrate it. As I've read some endophytic fungi infections can be passed from the mother plant to her seeds, I was hoping to be able to see if I could find some mycelium there. Alas I forgot to take them out of solution before leaving yesterday and, after soaking all night in such a caustic solution, the seeds were nothing but mush today. I had to throw them all away and will have to try again later next week.
In better news the stains finally came in! Tooday I got to weigh out, mix and autoclave a special agar for my project this semester. I added the Rose Bengal dye to my plates as well as dilute ampicillin to select against fast growing fungi and bacteria, respectively. In addition to giving endophytic fungi a fighting chance in my agar plates, the rose bengal will be picked up by the fungal colonies making identification of any species easier.
I'm really loving this program. 
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