Laboratory

Our lab facilities are currently located at the Universities of Jyväskylä and Helsinki. Most of the experimental work is carried out in Jyväskylä lab, which is equipped with standard computational facilities, and complete equipment, including incubators, environmental chambers, shakers, autoclave, fridges, freezers, three cryo replicators (EnzyScreen) and two microplate readers (Bioscreen C). The Department has also access to cost-effective DNA lab.

Our stydy species include various bacteria (Serratia, Pseudomonas, Escherichia), protozoa (e.g. Ciliates: Tetrahymena thermophila), bacteriophages, nematodes (C. elegans) and various invertebrate model hosts (e.g. waxmoths and tiger wood moths). For the evolutionary experiments we use chemostats, batch culture settings and some computer controlled machinery (see below).

 

 

Lab facilities: On the left, set of microcosms (orange-capped bottles) connected to the computer-controlled resource flow pumps. On the right, Bioscreen C spectrophotometer for bacterial growth measurements.

 

Study species: On the left, high pigment expression typical for ancestral S. marcescens strain. On the right, protozoan predation driven adaptive radiation of S. marcescens into non-pigmented, white and highly defensive prey genotype.