Jonathan A. Eisen edited Materials_and_Methods_Sample_collection__.md  over 8 years ago

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Plates were created using clear agar to facilitate optical density (OD) measurements. 1.5 g of Gelzan™ CM agar (Sigma-Aldrich) was added to 1 liter of lysogeny broth (LB). Each well of a flat-bottomed 96-well plate (Costar) was plated with 200 ul of agar. The plates were flamed to remove bubbles and incubated for 48-72 hours at RT to ensure sterility before adding bacteria. Fresh overnights of each bacterial isolate were diluted to .01 OD600 and made into 8% glycerol stocks. For plating, 10 ul of each thawed stock dilution was added to each of the 12 wells (2 replicates per plate x 6 plates). The bacteria were placed into different locations on each plate in order to account for drying at the edges or any other positional effects on the plates. The plates were then sealed with adhesive polypropylene film (VWR #?), into which a series of holes were cut with a laser to allow for airflow. Plates were stored at -80 °C either at UC Davis, or mailed to NASA-Houston before transfer to Cape Canaveral, FL for launch.  This payload was flown on the CRS-3 launch of the Space X Dragon spacecraft, on a Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket which successfully launched April 18, 2014. After a few days the plates were removed from the MELFI (Minus Eighty Lab Freezer For ISS) and partially thawed. However, technical problems arose and the plates were placed back into the MELFI until December 8, 2014. At that time, all three plates were thawed and the OD600 of each well (3x3 grid) was measured at time 0 (60 minutes after removal from the freezer) and then every 24 hours for 4 days. Measurements were performed in a Molecular Devices SpectraMax M5e plate reader which was modified for integration onto the ISS. On these same days, equivalent measurements were taken in a Molecular Devices SpectraMax M5e plate reader at UC Davis. After the experiment the "ground" plates were placed back at -80C -80 °C  and the "space" plates were placed back into the MELFI. In February 2015, the space plates were transferred to a -95C freezer on board a Dragon spacecraft and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean occurred on Feb 10th 2015. The plates were then mailed to UC Davis on dry ice, where they ice and  were transferred to -80C. -80 °C when received.  Once the plates were returned from the ISS, we thawed out all 6 plates and performed a high-density measurement in a Tecan M200 plate reader. OD600 readings were taken in a 5x5 grid covering the entire well, these 25 measurements were then averaged within each well.