Week of June 15th-18th
On the 3rd of June I found out that the method I was using to stain tissues to look for endophytes was not as effective as it could have been. By adding a drop of stain instead of excess alcohol when mounting my slide I am better able to see endophytic hyphae because the plant cells are not dehydrated from the alcohol. After altering my staining method I began to see more endophytes. I found three this week in silver leafed nightshade, mint and a succulent euphorbia plant.
The plates made last week began to grow endophytes and the ones from the week before continued to grow larger. The growth rate for all the colonies appears to be very slow which is a good sign they are genuine endophytes.
This week I also found a really neat new resource call the Journal of Video Experiments or JOVE. They have detailed videos of how to set up and conduct different experiments including the formulas used for the dilution of chemicals and things of that nature. One I watched was about how to inoculate plants with endophytes that kill insects. Here is the link, I don't know how to embed videos.
http://www.jove.com/video/50360/establishing-fungal-entomopathogens-as-endophytes-towards-endophytic
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