Science Survival Kit -> a summer program for adults who want to learn how to do research!

Welcome to the LearningThruResearch blog!

This blog has been in use by Bachelor students at the interdisciplinary life science program at the University Paris Descartes. They were sharing their ideas, data, and results obtained in their authentic self-proposed projects, in 2016 and 2017.

These project-based courses are not being taught any longer at the university, but exist in a slight modified way as a summer school, open to anyone with a completed high school, who wants to learn first-hand about how interdisciplinary life science projects are done!

If you liked the projects described on these pages, and want to do similar things yourself, then check out the Science Survival Kit, a program offered by a non-profit Rhizome Association, and join us for an amazing learning summer in Croatia!

Get to know Phycomyces blakesleeanus

Get to know Phycomyces blakesleeanus

Phycomyces blakesleeanus are fungi that filamentous and known to be very sensitive to their environment including light, wind, gravity and objects around them. 

They are known to have phototrophic growth and they mate with their opposite "sex". They exist in two different forms the (+) and (-).

Their optimal growth takes place in potato dextrose medium between 25 and 30°C. 

Under light microscope

On petri dish culture

For information check out:

https://www.wikigenes.org/e/mesh/e/9666.html

Get to know Sordaria fimicola

Get to know Sordaria fimicola

Sordaria fimicola is a fungus very well known for its usage in studying genetics thanks to its life cycle that respects the Mendelian laws of segregation. It is known to be a haploid organism. For most of its life cycle it is a non-motile organism.

First of all, this fungus grows at 25°C on nutrient agar. In nature these microbes can be found in the feces of organisms that eat plants. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Morelasci.jpg

Why are they used for genetic studies ?

The fungus does sexual reproduction which undergoes mitosis and meiosis. This organism, even though, begins life as a single celled organism it starts its mitotic cycle very early. 

As we know this mitotic division gives birth two identical daughter cells which are haploid. During this process of cell duplication a new "organ" starts growing: mycelium, which is known to be the sexual "organ" of the fungus. When the mycelium of two organisms meet, there is birth of diploid zygote. This zygote enters meiosis which ends up with the birth of 4 daughter cells also known as spores. The zygote does meiosis twice which allows the formation of 8 ascospores. This a linear organisation of the eight spores which are contained in a bag called asci. 

There are two alleles which determine whether as ascospores are white or black. This allows us to study the different genetic process taking place in simple organisms.

For more information check out:

http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/mar2007.html