Studying the soybean nodulation at McGill University

Résumé du document

This summer I had the great opportunity to do my three months training in McGill University in Quebec, Canada. It is one of the oldest Canadian universities, considered one of the most prestigious universities in Canada and one of the best in North America. According to the Times Higher Education Supplement it is the best Canadian school and it is among the 25 top universities of the world. With Concordia academy, McGill is the one of the two English universities of Montreal. McGill is divided into two campuses. The main campus is set upon 32 hectares at the foot of Mount Royal in Montreal's downtown district. A second campus—Macdonald Campus—is situated on 650 hectares of fields and forested land in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, 32 km west of the downtown campus. McGill has 21 faculties and professional schools and offers degrees and diplomas in over 300 fields of study. The university also has field research stations in Mont-Saint-Hilaire and Schefferville, Quebec; Axel Heiberg Island in Nunavut; and Holetown, Barbados.

Extraits

[...] At 48h (Figure the SA concentration kept to increase. Like previously there is a difference between the nod+ and nod- amplitude of the increase. The difference for nod+ is still not significant contrary to the nod- difference. All these results can be criticized; I did only three repetitions and usually for this kind of experiments it is necessary to do more or less 5 repetitions with more samples. In order to have more significant results it would be necessary to have more plants (around 100). [...]

[...] Consequently, the data I have are preliminary and not definitive. The master student chose the soybean, Glycine max, as laboratory plant because it is the crop the more common in North America and it is highly sensitive to its environment. The total growth and yield of the crop may vary widely depending upon location, soil, planting date, variety selection, weed competition, diseases, pest injury, or fertility levels. This level of environmental sensitivity often varies according to the particular growth stage of the crop. [...]

[...] The Provost is the chief academic officer of the University and has oversight and responsibility for the strategies, planning, development, implementation and assessment of all academic policies and programs, including the review of faculty appointments, tenure and promotion, and financial matters relating to Faculties and other units reporting directly to the Provost. The Board of Governors is the governing body of the University. It is composed of 25 voting members and two observers and generally meets six times per year. [...]

[...] They were washed with antibacterial soap and rinsed with distilled water in order to eliminate all the potential pathogens. To keep the soil inside, I put a sheet of paper towel at the bottom of the pot and I filled with moist Promix®. Promix® is a combination of peat moss, vermiculite and perlite, it is an excellent rooting medium but very poor in nutrients. I took VC stage of the soybean (Figure 12) from the trays of vermiculite. VC stage corresponds to 4 or 5 days old, the plant has emerged and cotyledons are fully unfolded. [...]

[...] Before the extraction the mortar and the pestle must be very dry. I put some liquid nitrogen in the mortar and then the sample to ground. After grounding the powder was poured in tube adapted for the centrifuge. Hormone was extracted with 100% methanol according to the ratio: 1.5 ml for 1 g of fresh leaf weight. I used 1 ml pipette it is why the total volume is divided in two or three in the Appendix 2 tables. After that the samples were spun for 20 min at 41,000g.The supernatant was collected and used for the High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) analysis. [...]