These days there are machines that automatically analyse DNA of the
gazillions of micro organisms in soil. They spew out a list of all the
different species names with relative abundance. I know they are being used
in Australian universities.
From there, even if the genome of a given organism has been defined(which have to be true in order to identify it), that doesn't tell us
_______________________________________________With the soil microorganisms, it depends on how precisely you want to
categorize what's there. On the one hand, you can use a microscope to look
at the broad groups of organisms (Elaine Ingham's method). This would
probably be more practical. You can also use microscopy to quantify
mycorrhizal colonization (there's a vinegar and ink method for staining I
heard about recently, cheaper and less cancer than the old standard for
staining roots). I think you might need two different types of
microscopes,
though. On the other hand, genetic sequencing is getting cheaper and
cheaper and can give you a lot of interesting detailed information. But,
if
you're partnered with a university, they probably have some of that
equipment. I think for identification of the substances the microorganisms
are creating, you'd use gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).
Alia
On Sun, Mar 3, 2013 at 7:14 PM, Douglas Hinds <cedecor@gmx.net> wrote:
On 03/03/2013 03:25 PM, Chris Carnevale wrote:
Hi Douglas,Particularly to quantify the presence of nutritional elements and the
I'm not sure about what kind of equipment you would need, but certainly
soil testing would be important.
microorganisms that constitute the soil food web.
I would also like to be able to identify the substances being created by
those organisms, the activity of each substance and define the
conditions required for the production of same.
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.