Field of Science

GFAJ-1 (no real progress to report)

I'm now using the medium exactly as specified, but the cells still aren't growing consistently.  They also form variable numbers and sizes of Tween 20-resistant clumps.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Rosie,

    Thank you so much for your hard work and for sharing your results with us!

    Have you checked to see if any precipitates (crystals) are forming in the liquid medium? Are you sure that your clumps are cells? Given that one of the figures in Wolfe-Simon et al. showing "growth" was an OD measurement, I've been wondering all along whether it was just precipitation that affected the absorbance.

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  2. @Alexa, I've been staining the cells with acridine orange (specific for DNA and RNA); the components of the clumps I'm seeing have the same size, shape and intensity as the isolated cells.

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