live sphagnum in tc?

[sundewman]

Hey this is gonna sound really random, but I was just curious if anyone has ever tried growing live sphagnum moss in tissue culture. Not that it's hard to grow in normal conditions, but I think it would look crazy inside one of those tc jars.

I'm assuming you'd have to grow it from spores? Or do you think the plant could survive the sterilization process without getting destroyed?

The main reason I ask is that it would be interesting to see which nutrients are responsible for the red coloration sphagnum sometimes develops. I've just never heard of/seen this being done before.

[Medina]

I think that sphagnum resist the sterilization wiht bleach. I am interesting in in vitro culture of sphagnum moss, but i belive that is quiet difficult to see if the red coloration is due to nutrients or to abiotic factors.

[Not a Number]

Sphagnum propagates so readily from cuttings that I don't see any benefit from trying to propagate it in-vitro.

It seems more trouble and work than it is worth.

The red color appears to primarily a matter of the species.

Why not take a batch, rinse it well with distilled water (no nutrients).

Grow it in distilled water then divide it into smaller batches.

Keeping the conditions of light, humidity and temperature constant for all the batches add various nutrients to the different samples, keeping one in distilled water only as a control.

I take it you have the ability to assay your solutions to measure what and how much nutrients maybe getting consumed by the Sphagnum.

[sundewman]

Thanks Medina. That's what I figured...

NaN, yea, it's just that I was trying to come up with a tc experiment idea for Biology that hadn't been tried before. It has to involve the use of tissue culture, so I guess I could just try the experiment like you recommend on my own. Now that you mention the whole angle of assaying the soln, it seems like this experiment would be a little more difficult than I'd anticipated. I was just going to try a more qualitative approach.

Thanks for the responses,
Aaron

[Not a Number]

Well for a pilot study it may not be necessary to see how much nutrients are absorbed.

Most fertilizers are concerned with nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium and express the percentage in weight.

You could limit your study to these plus calcium, just to see if there are any effects on growth and/or color.

[kmartin1]

I think the reddish color actually has a lot to do with the amount of sunlight it receives. I seen some growing in the wild and there was some that was growing out in the sun and was really dark red and then there was some in the same clump that was under a pine bough that allowed almost no light that was really bright green. It might just be different species though. I was talking with a Botany Prof. who had gotten his degree in that state and he said there were something like 28 or so species of sphagnum in the state.

[taz6122]

Nov 4, 2009 3:04:35 GMT kmartin1 said:

I think the reddish color actually has a lot to do with the amount of sunlight it receives. I seen some growing in the wild and there was some that was growing out in the sun and was really dark red and then there was some in the same clump that was under a pine bough that allowed almost no light that was really bright green. It might just be different species though. I was talking with a Botany Prof. who had gotten his degree in that state and he said there were something like 28 or so species of sphagnum in the state.

Did your Professor not know that calcium intake is directly linked with sunlight??

[bradrichard]

I realize that this is an old thread but I am trying to find a source for a sterile culture of Sphagnum moss. I want to do some explant initiation experiments on sterile live sphagnum in vitro. I remember reading a post on some forum a while back about a sphagnum contaminant in someone's tissue culture vial. I have searched the web but came up empty on a source. I could try to germinate some Sphagnum spores on sterile media if I could get some. I have seen Sphagnum spore capsules on moss growing in Wisconsin sphagnum bogs while on vacation there, but I don't have any on my cultivated moss. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Brad

[coldcoffee]

Hey Brad,
I have been thinking of trying to TC Sphagnum myself. If I successfully get a sterile explant to take, I will let you know. I thought i would mention- personally, if I wanted to start with spores, I would consider dired sphagnum as a potential candidate- given that bails often have spores and are usually poorly sterilized. Naturally, thedisinfection will be a challange but I plan to use trial and error myself. I will likely start with a live cutting myself.

[coldcoffee]

Ok, sometime this weekend I plant to try to TC some live NZ Sphagnum that I just got. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I will share my results.

Brad, did you ever try this? If so, how is it going?

[peterhewitt]

I think this topic has been lurking around on various TC forums for a long while.
No success has ever been reported. I think moss is far too delicate to survive the sterilization process.
With the advent of Plant Preservative mixture it might be possible, but I personally doubt it. Unless someone comes up with a less harsh, but effective sterilization process.

[coldcoffee]

I suspect you are right. I have a couple of ideas I plan to try out.

Although I plan to use PPM, I catch myself wondering if PPM might even damage it.

[peterhewitt]

Some people rave over PPM and some not so much.
In my commercial Lab, I find that Explants/seeds treated with PPM start very slowly and seem to grow a lot slower than those in a base Media without PPM. So my results have not been great with it.

[coldcoffee]

Do you find less contamination using PPM or about the same? How are you disinfecting your media?

[peterhewitt]

We use an Autoclave to sterilize media. we find that any latent contamination remains suppressed as long as PPM is used in the media. We try to move plants on to a PPM free media at the first re-plate, and this is where the contamination issues start. We often have to re-sterilize without PPM further down the line again.