Our lab investigates protistan ecology by combining both molecular methods on the cutting-edge and “old school” culture-based studies and techniques. The lab is divided between these disciplines: molecular and live culture. Culture work requires a scientist to keep a culture alive. This is not simple. More than 90% of the things you can find growing happily in the wild will not grow under the “ideal conditions” of a lab. Also, the majority of the things that we have successfully got to grow in the lab are extremely fragile. A trace amount of an unknown substance can spell death for an entire culture and years worth of meticulous work getting it into a it a stable state. The area used for keeping things alive in cultures, “The Live Area” is kept completely separate from the area reserved for molecular work and all of the associated “unknown substances.” The molecular area in our lab is affectionately called “The Dead Area.”
I’ve been doing a lot of culture and microscopy work over the summer, and It reminds me of being in a combat zone, in a good way. The overarching objective is clear, and the tasks and problems are relatively straight-forward and repetitive: Sterilize the stage (UV, alcohol), warm the media, don and change gloves, systematically examine each culture under the microscope, triage next steps according to the overall objective. I’ve developed a perspective from examining the taxa that I didn’t realize that I didn’t have, and could never get from only reading about them. Its the difference between a resume and an in-person interview.
Acantharia is a group of large heterotrophic protists. They were made famous through illustrations by Ernst Haeckel in the 1800s.
Akashiwo is a genus of dinoflagellate alga. It’s not known to be toxic, but can form some massive blooms with a brownish hue.
Ceratium is an important photosynthetic dinoflagellate genus that is endemic to the California coast and present throughout the global ocean microbiome.
Coleps is a heterotrophic protist (protozoa) that earns a living attaching to its prey and sucking out the contents. The contents here is the red circle.
Lab Day: Culture Check
I’ve spent the summer attempting to get a culture of Margalefidinium (AKA Cochlodinium) to expand. This particular bug was isolated by Julie V. Hopper from the Santa Monica Bay during its bloom in the spring of 2019. Its extremely stubborn, picky, and slow growing in the lab despite its dominance in the ocean during a period of low nutrient (NO3 and PO4) concentrations. I’m learning to appreciate dichotomy between microbes grown in the lab vs those growing in the wild ocean. In this case, Margalef grows extremely slowly and forms short chains under “ideal” nutrient concentrations and sufficient (artificial) sunlight energy, but It bloomed to high concentrations on a large scale and formed long chains in a few days under extremely low inorganic nutrient concentrations in the wild ocean.
I sincerely believe that culturing (and failing at culturing) the bug has given me as much valuable insights into its success during the bloom. I’ve used molecular techniques to understand Margalef’s physiological response and interactions in the wild, but the insights gained from the intimate relationship formed through caring for and actually looking at Margalef (the main character of this study) has given me a perspective about its ecology and has influenced the questions I ask of the molecular data how I interpret it.
As always…
