Research Question:

To find out how the presence of bacteriophages in the soil around red or white oak trees has a correlation with the health condition of oak trees.

Rationale:

Samples were collected to expand the data size and provide more insight into whether the presence of Arthrobacter phages in the soil around red or white oaks has a correlation with the health condition of oak trees. Washing helps to isolate the arthrobacter and phages from the soil particles itself and Enrichment amplifies the numbers of phages present by adding arthrobacter hosts for phages to infect.

Soil Washing and Enrichment for sample (10.24.18):

Material:

•  15 ml Conical Tube
•  50 ml Conical Tube
• LB Broth
• Syringe Filter
• Vortex machine
• Centrifuge
• Micropipette
• Serological pipette

Procedure:

1. Set up an Aseptic zone
2. Placed sample Soil (10.1.18) to the 4 ml mark.
3. Poured LB Broth to the 12 ml mark.
4. Vortexed for 15 min to mobilize the soil.
5. Centrifuged at 3000 G for 10 min.
6. Transferred the supernatant to a new tube
7. Added 0.5 ml Arthrobacter into the filtered supernatant and placed on shaker and incubate at 38.1 Celcius.

Observations, Results & Data:

Soil Collecting for sample (10.24.18):

• White Oak
• Diameter: 16.9 cm
• Tree Height: 6.3 m
• Canopy: 224 cm

Interpretations & Conclusions:

Due to shortages of filters, the sample hadn’t been filtered by with a 0.22 um filter, the results of this change of protocol could have an impact on the results of the experiment.

Next Step:

The next step would be to use chloroform to kill the microbes in the lysate and filter the lysate, completing the enrichment process.