Sav's Sourdough Starters

Unique Microbe Analysis Due to delays with the DNA sequencing data from this semester's sourdough samples, we had to make a few changes to our project. Instead of answering our original research question, we did a Unique Microbe Analysis and formed a hypothesis that we will test with our Spring 2021 data.  I chose to analyze samples 49 and 50 from the Fall 2020 data. These two samples were grown and submitted by the same individual. Sample 49 was a control starter and sample 50 was an experimental fruit starter containing peaches. The unique microbe that I identified in the experimental fruit starter that was not also in the control starter was Gluconobacter oxydans.   If you look very closely at the bottom of the graph, you can see a small line indicating the presence of G. oxydans in the peach starter. This microbe accounted for only 0.082% of this starter's microbial composition. Below you will find the legend for this graph. I have outlined the microbe's name in red.  

Science Communication Science can be shared with many different audiences across various platforms. Since I have recently deleted all of my social media in an attempt to become more productive and improve my mental health, I do not have as many mediums to look at and pick from. I have chosen two podcasts and one YouTube channel as my three examples of science communication that I found interesting.  In Defense of Plants Podcast - https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/7jaeh-5b63a/In-Defense-of-Plants-Podcast The first podcast that I listened to has episodes about different kinds of plants and many other things related to plants. For example, one episode I listened to was about botanical gardens and propagation. The episodes in this podcast are pretty long, but I did find them fairly engaging. Something that stood out to me about this podcast was the different guest speakers and their discussions. There are many episodes with speakers from different plant-related professions and special

A couple of blogs that I am subscribed to include Hannah Prescott and Sydney Joyner's blogs, which are titled "Sourpuss Sourdough" and "Let's Get This Bread." This week I have reviewed the research questions they have proposed that they would like to answer with the data we receive from this semester's starters. I also reevaluated my own potential research questions this week to determine what I would like to ask about our data.  Sourpuss Sourdough - Hannah Prescott Hannah asked the following questions:  1. Is there a connection between the type of fruit and the type of microbes found in the starters?  2. Do certain microbes display a particular phenotypic smell in the starters, and does this smell change or become more strong or weak in relative abundance?  3. Did the environment the starters were grown in impact all of the starters as far as which microbes were present?  Summary : I think Hannah has asked some great questions! Hannah's third quest

During the last two weeks, students have been  submitting  samples of  their sourdough starters  for DNA sequencing.  We will be getting data  and  results back soon, but for now, we will be  practicing  DNA analysis using data from last  semester's  sourdough starters.  What are we sequencing?  The purpose of this research project is to determine the exact sequences of nucleotides within the sourdough starters to figure out which microorganisms are present. We will be sequencing a few very specific genes or regions within a genome of  many different organisms. There are two genes that we will be sequencing for this set of sourdough starter samples; the 16S rRNA gene, which is present in bacteria and the ITS region, which is present in eukaryotic organisms such as fungi.  Shotgun vs Amplicon-based Metagenomic Sequencing We discussed two ways that we could sequence our sourdough starter samples, each having their own pros and cons. Shotgun metagenomic sequencing involves sequencing

The Beginning of The End The last update on my starters consisted of observations from February 8th to February 18th.  There was very little progress to share during that time. On February 19th, however, my original control starter began to rise. It was rising pretty consistently for a couple of days, but then it seemed to show less bubbles and growth each day. Its health declined rapidly which led me to dispose of all four starters since I did not have any viable samples to submit for sequencing. Below I have attached images from February 19th and 20th, the days my original control starter showed the most growth.  The two images above are both of my original starters on  February 19th , taken around 9:30 am. At this point, I had been feeding my original starters and newer starters differently. My original starters were being refreshed each day by having 1 TBSP of old mixture taken out and then adding 1 TBSP of water and 4.5 TSP of flour. For the newer starters, I was removing 1 TBSP o

Rising Rate Experiment & Graphs Since my starters have not been very reliable or rising regularly, I decided to find a partner to work with to complete the rising rate experiment. I worked with Hannah Prescott on this experiment. She had three starters; a control starter, an apple variable starter, and a strawberry variable starter. She observed these three starters over a period of 2040 minutes. If you would like to see photos of these starters and how the experiment was performed, you can view her blog post about the experiment  here .  Since Hannah actually performed the experiment, I used the data she collected to create the following graphs.  In this first graph, you will see the changes in the absolute starter heights over time. This graph shows exactly how much each starter rose in centimeters throughout this given period of time. Creating and looking at this graph, we were able to visualize and determine that the strawberry variable was more reactive and was rising at a hig