Reinfection Cultures
These flasks of culture are being raised to be used for anemone reinfections. Once rendered aposymbiotic, Exaiptasia anemones can be reinfected with different strains of algae to experiment with different symbiotic relationships.
Laboratory Induced Adaptation
Using a series of water baths, I am currently adapting different strains of symbionts to elevated temperature. Due to their faster generation times, algae can undergo genetic adaptation much faster than their cnidarian hosts.
Algal Fluorescence in Symbiosis
We can use fluorescence microscopy to visualize algal symbionts within the tissues of anemone tentacles. Here each blue dot represents an algae cell within the tentacles of an Exaiptasia anemone.
