Day 7: Lichen cultures

May 05, 2017 • 9:42 AM UTC

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Microorganisms

laksiyer

Human observer of life. https://sukshmadarshin.wordpress.com

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Continuing from my previous post, I am going to try and keep an eye on the succession of life in my lichen cultures. For this, I have 6 different lichens collected from different trees put into petridishes containing RO water. Below, I categorize all life I could see after 1 week.
Here are results from three of the plates. Dont miss out the third one. It is full of exciting life that I havent seen before.

Plate-number Observation date Species observed April-22-Plate1 April-29-2017 Long-ciliate, Colpoda, liitle Ciliate April-22-Plate2 April-29-2017 Nematode, Large Bdelloid Rotifer, Tardigrade, Long ciliate, Ciliate-24621-2-LI, little ciliate April-22-Plate3 April-29-2017 Nematode, Bdelloid Rotifer, Tardigrade, Amoeba, flagellate, Ciliate-24621-2-LI, flagellate, Ciliate with a terminal contractile vacuole, Colpoda April-21-Plate1 April-29-2017 Nematode, Bdelloid Rotifer, Long ciliate, Stylonychia-like ciliate April-21-Plate2 April-29-2017 Bdelloid Rotifer, Colpoda, Long ciliate April-21-Plate3 April-29-2017 Nematode, Rotifer, Colpoda 1. April-22-Plate 1, Colpoda is the most common ciliate I have seen in over 20 lichen suspension cultures ( see previous observation, this is a different species). It definitely is significantly associated with lichens. Its also very easy to grow. You can culture it in hay infusion. I have done it several times now.

2. April 22-Plate 2. This ciliate (Ciliate-24621-2-LI) is definitely a hypotrich ciliate (reminds me of Ciliate-21501-2-LI). I suspect it is related to Stylonychia . Would you be able to help identify it?.

3. April22-Plate 3. It is amazing how much life is there in this plate…. I thought I’d put it in this post, but I’ll leave it in suspense until the next post 🙂 — To be continued.
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