| Background
Working
in teams of 2, investigate one of the following problems. Submit
your project topic online by midnight Feb 10.
La’au
The use of higher plants in the treatment of disease is as old as
the art of healing itself. Isaiah of Biblical times suggested that
a plaster of figs be placed on boils as a treatment of this form
of infection. The Chinese have used plants and herbs for centuries
in the treatment of many diseases. Thousands of phytochemicals have
been isolated and several serve as plant defenses against microbial
infection (4). Preliminary studies showed that plants have antibacterial
properties but these studies were done over 60 years ago (3). The
idea of using plants was abandoned with the discovery of antibiotics
from soil bacteria. The widespread resistance of bacterial pathogens
to conventional antibiotics has prompted renewed interest in the
use of alternative natural microbial inhibitors such as amtimicrobial
peptides (AMPs). AMPs, termed bacteriocins, are ribosomally synthesised
polypeptides, which have bactericidal or bacteriostatic effect.
A variety of antimicrobial peptides have been discovered in recent
years including defensins, found in human skin, magainin, found
in frog skin, and squalamine, from the spiny dogfish shark.. Additionally,
the rise in foodborne infections has prompted renewed interest in
the use of alternative natural microbial inhibitors (5). Read
more…
Questions:
-Effects on bacterial/fungal growth of sublethal concentration(s)
of an extract of berries, leaves, etc.
-Determine the Minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and/or minimal
lethal concentration (MLC) of an extract.
-Determine the effect on bacterial/fungal growth/survival in a
food.
-What is your control?
The rhizosphere
 A
very important contribution to plant growth is made by mycorrhizae,
or mycorrhizal symbionts (myco = fungus; rhiza = root). There are
two primary types of these fungi: endomycorrhizae, also known as
vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae; and ectomycorrhizae. Both types
function as do root hairs on plants; that is, they extend the surface
area through which the plant can absorb nutrients, especially phosphorus,
which is not very mobile in soil. Read
more…
Gaia
The Gaia hypothesis proposes that living and nonliving
parts of the earth are viewed as a complex interacting system. Named
after the Greek earth goddess, this hypothesis proposes that all
living things have a regulatory effect on the Earth's environment
that promotes life overall. Read more…
-Determine productivity of a hillside
spring
| Purpose
Working in teams of two students, you will
1. Answer the following questions in the background:
-What will you be looking for?
-Why is this important?
2. What will you look for with your experiments?
-How many trials will you do?
3. Discuss the significance of your results
4. Write your report in the proper
format.
Hypotheses
State your hypothesis
(& alternative hypotheses)
Materials Available
You must turn in the Supply Request
form before you begin working.
|
Results
Displaying data
Discussion & Conclusions
Literature Cited
You are encouraged to read all the available information on
the topic for your paper. To select appropriate references,
you must evaluate your sources of information. Print and electronic
encyclopedias are often good to get familiar with a topic:
however, these are not appropriate references for
a research paper. The most reliable information is that published
in peer-reviewed journals. Peer-reviewed means that the author's
work has been read and accepted by colleagues in his/her discipline.
Start your literature search with Highwire, PubMed, or another
science database and search on your topic. Read the abstracts
and keep a list of interesting articles. Note, you must read
and cite the articles. Highwire, PubMed, and other databases
are not citations; these are indexes to articles.
For each topic, there some article links to get you started
but these should not constitute your entire literature review. |
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