Nina Baghai-Riding, PhD

Testing for Manmade Chemicals from Mississippi Delta Plants

This project addresses two specific aims. Aim one will incorporate two or three core undergraduate students that desire to pursue graduate or professional school in the biological, chemical, and/or environmental sciences. The core students will get paid and will assist with field and lab procedures. They will select specified weedy species from three or more locations that are within a 10-mile radius of Delta State University. Selected specimens will border sprayed agricultural areas as well as from unsprayed areas such as at the DSU former golf course or Bear Pen Park in Cleveland, MS. Weedy plants that bloom in the Mississippi Delta during the late summer to early fall include Solidago altissima (tall goldenrod), Vernonia gigantea (Ironweed), Eupatorium serotinum (late boneset), and Sorghum halepense (Johnson grass). The selected undergraduate students will learn how to collect pollen using vacuum wands and filters and screen and sieve pollens to purify samples. The pollen will be stored in plastic ½ ml vials with hinged caps and refrigerated at -20° C. Representative plant specimens, associated with each prepared sample, will be collected, dried, mounted, and stored in the DSU herbarium and labeled as vouchers for this study. In Dr. Baghai-Riding’s laboratory, students will prepare and stain fuchsine gelatin as a medium for making semi-permanent microscope slides as well as apply pollen and other cell samples to SEM stubs to compare contaminated and noncontaminated samples. These students also will prepare extracts for the ELISA Test Kits. Making extracts will incorporate proper use of a centrifuge and chemical measurements. These extracts are a necessary component in conducting the ELISA tests. 

Aim two is to incorporate experiments that pertain to the concentration of atrazine and glyphosate found in collected flowers/pollen. These experiments will elevate instructional content in various upper division biology, chemistry, and environmental science during scheduled laboratory periods: Economic Botany, Environmental Chemistry, Genetics, Materials and Methods in Environmental Science, Histology, and more. More than sixty students will gain exposure to these techniques. Students who helped with Aim one will help instruct laboratory sessions. Laboratory experiments will target making extracts, and understanding the results associated with the ELISA kits. Students will construct graphs and tables that highlight important data. Students also will gain valuable observational, measuring, and analytical techniques. For example, they will utilize multichannel micropipettes, interpret test sensitivity regarding pesticide quantity, and determine if future soil and water tests are necessary at the specified field sites.