What a wonderful session yesterday Chlorohydra Ants Mosquitos Several fundamental questions were addressed yesterday which can make a difference in science and believe me maintaining these model systems does not require any budget.
Cholorohydra group started with the maintenance of this model system. Chlorella is an algae which homes inside the hydra and offer food for hydra and in return hydra provides shelter and protection. What a wonderful example of symbiotic association this cholrohydra have.
This group also came up with an experiment to show how the very basic needs (food, sunlight) can predict Chlorohydra’s survival which is also considered as immortal.
This I Never Knew Earlier (TINKE) moments: Cholorohydra also prefers sexual reproduction in unfavorable conditions such as starvation and cold temperatures
Everyone enjoyed the photographs of this wonderful organism, especially the setup from Home lab Mira road, Thane was exceptionally good.
Later this group went on to study regeneration, where this group attempted to study this organism after amputation from head middle piece and foot region.
Goof up Group should work more on this organism and must develop better handling techniques for experimentation.
Ant group started with an interesting note that these creatures which we see almost around in every setup for e.g. home gardens and even at some workplace can also be studied as a model system. This model shows remarkable social skills and lives in a colony which consists of Worker, Queen and Flying ants
Worker ants: cleans eggs feeds larvae and forage for food; Queen ants: Lays eggs and stores sperms in the abdomen; and Flying ants: swarm throughout the course of a year when the young ants determine it’s time to mate and start a new colony.
TINKE moments the fertilized eggs becomes fertile males (Drones) and the unfertilized eggs becomes infertile female worker ants. At the time of breeding Ants leave the original colony on a nupital flight and queen sheds its wings after they find a new place to nest and eventually worker ants helps to make the nest. Larvae of Ants are bigger than the pupae and Queen larvae were fed more than worker larvae.
Concepts required further discussions- Formicarium- how to make one?, hoarding habits of worker ants and many research questions to be explored…
Mosquito group came up with the loud and clear message that this model system can be a vector of many diseases like malaria, dengue etc. and have a potential to become epidemic which can lead to an outbreak in no time. This group also educated us about how to identify Ades v/s Non-Ades mosquitoes, characteristic features of male and female, why females bite and lead to spreading of the above mentioned diseases.
Interesting TINKE moments: Males usually feed on plants sap and commonly found in gardens and females found near the shelter of mammals (including humans). Female mosquitoes have nerve cells called cpA neurons that have a receptor to detect carbon dioxide. These gives them the ability to sense the plumes of air we exhale
Then this group went on to explain surveillance check with the data they have gathered from various parts of Kanpur. Where and how to find the egg laying setups of mosquitos to eradicate the vector borne diseases spread by this model system.
What a lovely and interesting day it was yesterday…
Today, the fifth day get ready for the action with model systems Pagalapos, Microbes, Rotifers, Nematodes and Moina with the scientific queries in your mind