Blog Challenge #1

  Our focus for this year is on reactions of molybdenum enzymes and proteins in organisms. The protein we are most interested in is paraplasmic nitrate reductase A in C. jejuni, which is one of the most common causes of human gastroenteritis in the world.  One of the things that we do is grow bacteria.We grow bacteria by making plates.  We had to first make up the Agar and mix it.The reason we use Agar is because the bacteria loves it. Then we had to put it in the Autoclave for a half an hour. When it was done we took it out and waited till it cooled down enough to handle, then we began to pour the plates. When I was pouring the plates for the first time I had to work as close to the Bunsen Burner as I could so there was a less of a chance for unknown substances to contaminate and ruin them. I also had to move very fast so the Agar didn't coagulate. I was excited when I was done, because Andrew told me that I made 17 plates. After that we streaked the plates with old bacteria, which will allow us to organize how it should grow, and put them in the Incubator at 37 degrees Celsius. We put them in at 37 degrees Celsius because that is the temperature that they are most active in. The next day we took them out of the Incubator and started to seal them with para film. We seal them to cut off all of the oxygen. After sealing them we put them in the fridge at 4 degrees Celsius.