11/15/18

Marci Jordan

Biology Lab 1105-31

Pre-Lab/Lecture

Morphology and Scientific Presentations

Taxonomy is the discipline of biology that names and classifies organisms.  The science of naming organisms is often credited to Carolus Linnaeus and is used universally to improve communication.  Even so, there are many ways to classify and occasionally a morphological classification scheme may not agree with a molecular or evolutionary classification scheme (phylogeny). Our goal is to learn the classification schemes used for Ciliates so that we may recognize the ciliates we collect from the soil.

The location of the of the oral cilia is used to classify ciliates Two large groups of ciliates are based on the location and characteristic of the cytostome. Ventrostomatous patterns of oral cilia describe the cytostome to one side of the cell or away from the apex. The Protostomatous pattern of oral cilia describe the cytostome at the anterior end (apex) of the cell.

Ciliates are classified by the types and arrangements of kinetids. Kineties are rows of cilia. The cilia are attached to the cell through a kinetosome, also called a basal body, which connects to bands of cytoplasmic fibril proteins. The complete structure is called a kinetid which are organized in rows called kineties. A kinetid has one (monokinetid) or sometimes 2 (dikinetid) cilia,  the subpellicle basal body region (kinetostome), and a complex array of fibrils beneath the cell surface and connected to the kinetostome.

The arrangement of the infraciliature is used to classify ciliates. One common scheme for classification is to compare the infraciliature.  This may not be easy to do with the light microscope, but understanding the characteristics will allow you to look for these patterns. What is infraciliature? Just like “infrastructure” refers to the structures and systems that are needed to keep a country or organization running properly, “infraciliature” refers to the organization and distribution of ciliary structures on the ciliate. Some cilia are located on the oral groove, also called the oral apparatus and or cytostome, (oral cilia), some near the oral groove (paroral cilia), some on the “body” of the cell (somatic cilia), and some on the caudal, or posterior tail, region (caudal cilia). The cilia are arranged in rows and are either embedded in the membrane as single (mono), pairs (di) or groups (poly) of cilia. Tufts of many cilia together are called cirri.

Information about Final Presentations

Scientific Communication is an essential skill for success in science.  One of the major goals of CILI-CURE is to give students opportunities to learn and practice 2 of the standard ways that science communicate, Scientific Reports and Scientific Presentations. Work with your team members to plan your presentation.  Do not just divide the work up into individual tasks. Work as a team so that you all contribute to the entire product. Pages in the pre-lab include some resources about science presentation skills.

Purpose

The purpose of this weeks lab is to further discover, document, and identify ciliates. The next lab meeting will be presenting all the information so it is important to gain all last minutes information this week in lab.

Objective

Objectives include ciliate biology, ciliate classification, recognizing failure in science, finding a ciliate to isolate, obtain a live image of ciliate, staining ciliate, and presentation design. All these objectives are to compact all information necessary to make a successful power point presentation.

Hypothesis

I think students will be successful today as this is the third try to obtain some ciliates. Also, we had a container with contents which held a lot of ciliates for students who could not find any in their soil. Therefore, everyone should have some photo evidence of a ciliate before they leave.

Procedures

Soil Texture

1. Use a ruler to measure the % sand, silt, and clay
2. Determine the % of each soil particle
3. Record soil type in notebook

Ciliate Identification

1. Obtain drops of soil sample from the non-flooded plate with a pipette. Be sure to try and not get any debris.
2. Search and find ciliate cells at varying magnification levels
3. Use Methyl Cellulose to slow down the ciliate and capture a picture
4. Use Iodine to stain the ciliate to have it appear more visible
5. Once a good picture is obtained try and identify based on morphology characteristics

Presentation Design

1. Define your problem/purpose- what do you want the audience to know
2. Sell your work- use a question, figure, or creative title
3. Presentation should be mostly visuals and consise
4. Everyone should contribute equally

Data

Soil Texture

My soil texture came out to be “Loam”

Ciliate Identification

So I tried to discovery more ciliates in hope to better identify or discover completely new ciliates in my soil. However today in lab was not my day as I had no luck finding many ciliates and when I did I could not photograph them. Even with Dr. Adair’s help she could not find any. Luckily I got really good detailed photos and videos of a ciliate last week in lab which I included in my last notebook post and I will be using that for my presenation.

Presentation Design

1. Introduction
   • What/why were talking about this
   • Define a ciliate
   • Backround information
2. Material and Methods
   • How we got soil
   • Non-flooded plates
   • Soil pH/ texture
   • Methyl cellulose and iodide
3. Marci
   • Add figure/pics
   • Individual pH/texture
   • % Water
   • Identify class/ciliate (why)
   • Ciliate Characterization
4. Lou
   • Add figure/pics
   • Individual pH/texture
   • % Water
   • Identify class/ciliate (why)
   • Ciliate Characterization
5. Riley
   • Add figure/pics
   • Individual pH/texture
   • % Water
   • Identify class/ciliate (why)
   • Ciliate Characterization
6. Discussion
   • Connect to tree
   • Big picture
   • Connect pH level to ciliates found

Conclusion

Overall, students have had plenty of time and resources to gain at least one ciliate. After these three lab days of preparations and the lab meetings even before while consisted of collecting the soil has now come full circle. Each student has background knowledge of ciliates, information on what we are doing and why, and how to identify ciliates which we have collected. Data such as water %, soil pH, and soil texture has also been measured and can be used for presentations.

Next Step

Following basically our last lab I am very excited to work on my presentation. Although I was hesitant and nervous before, I know feel prepared and equip to form and present this presentation. I’m excited to use the Thanksgiving Break to lay out all my data and research to piece it together and find what it all means. After that I will combine my findings with my two lab partners to create our presentation. Once we return to Baylor we will practice our presentation and present it on Thursday in class. I’m interested to see how our findings will compare to others in the same class.