Unknowns Project 3

17 October 2012

One of the isolations I really wanted to make was of a fungus that decimated blow fly populations throughout Texas last March and April. I kept around 15 flies that had died from this fungus in a sealed mason jar. I figured that I would go ahead and plate a fly, without surface sterilizing it, just to see what would grow. I basically opened the jar under the hood, grabbed a fly with sterile sharp forceps, and placed it in the middle of a 1/2 strength PDA plate. After one week, I had a lot of growth on this plate (Fig. 1). Viewing this fungus under the microscope leads me to believe that it is a Zygomycete, and most likely Mucor or Rhizopus spp (which I cannot use for my project) (Figs. 2, 3).

When observing the plates isolated from the pig carcasses, there was some obvious growth (Figs. 4-6). The plate from Pig 1 exhibited extensive growth (Fig 4), and the plates isolated from original plates were also exhibiting some nice growth (Figs. 5, 6).

There appeared to be Zygomycetes isolated from both pigs (Figs. 7, 9), most likely common species that I cannot use. Examination of dark green colonies from the original Pig 1 plate showed very interesting structures (Fig. 8). I was not able to identify this during the time given for lab.

Fig. 1
1/2 strength PDA with a Phormia regina (Diptera: Calliphoridae) adult in the middle of the plate

Fig. 2
Fly fungus at 40x magnification

Fig. 3
Fly fungus at 40x magnification

Fig. 4
Plate from Pig 1

Fig. 5
Plate containing fungi isolated from the white fuzz on the Pig 2 original plate

Fig. 6
Plate containing fungi isolated from the green colonies on the Pig 1 original plate.

Fig. 7
Microscopic examination of plate in Fig. 5

Fig. 8
Microscopic examination of dark green colonies on plate in Fig.  4

Fig. 9
Microscopic examination of light green colonies from plate in Fig.  6

Conclusion

Although it looks like I don't have anything useful yet, I still have many more samples to go through!

All for now,

C