Tardigrade Chemotaxis
Start Date
1-8-2024 12:45 PM
End Date
1-8-2024 1:00 PM
Location
Alter 206
Abstract
Tardigrades and their impact on our environment are assumed by most to be negligible and unimportant. However, from last summer's research on tardigrade chemotaxis, results from a tracking assay suggest that tardigrades have the ability to detect chemical signals in their environment. I have spent this summer designing a chemotaxis assay, as the tracking assay may have been limiting our potential findings. Agar plates were designed with four equally spread-out plugs, two of which are control (water) and the other two being a chemical treatment. Each well was treated with 1 microliter of 0.125 M sodium azide. This ensured that the tardigrades were stopped at each well when they arrived to it, so after an hour's time I could count the number of tardigrades in each well and compare these numbers using ratios of control to treatment. The experimental design required much trial and error, such as the distance of the wells from the center, the amount (in microliters) of sodium azide assigned to the wells, and the concentration of the azide, so that it did not create a gradient in the agar that would stop the tardigrades too soon, before arriving to the wells. Our next steps moving forward will be to run these trials and collect and interpret data from a successfully designed chemotaxis assay.
Tardigrade Chemotaxis
Alter 206
Tardigrades and their impact on our environment are assumed by most to be negligible and unimportant. However, from last summer's research on tardigrade chemotaxis, results from a tracking assay suggest that tardigrades have the ability to detect chemical signals in their environment. I have spent this summer designing a chemotaxis assay, as the tracking assay may have been limiting our potential findings. Agar plates were designed with four equally spread-out plugs, two of which are control (water) and the other two being a chemical treatment. Each well was treated with 1 microliter of 0.125 M sodium azide. This ensured that the tardigrades were stopped at each well when they arrived to it, so after an hour's time I could count the number of tardigrades in each well and compare these numbers using ratios of control to treatment. The experimental design required much trial and error, such as the distance of the wells from the center, the amount (in microliters) of sodium azide assigned to the wells, and the concentration of the azide, so that it did not create a gradient in the agar that would stop the tardigrades too soon, before arriving to the wells. Our next steps moving forward will be to run these trials and collect and interpret data from a successfully designed chemotaxis assay.
