| Explore | The potato is subjected to a disease called soft rot that leads to soft infected tissue, overpowering odor, and discoloration. It left the potato unable to be eaten. This soft rot is caused by bacteria that enter the potato post-harvest. Sometimes, we have experienced soft rot when we leave a potato in the cabinet for a long period of time because we forgot about it. Con we kill the potatoes by washing them in soap and water before shipping them out. Are there any variants of potatoes that have defense mechanisms against soft rot? How does soft rot lead to infected tissue? Three Factors for Disease Impact Susceptible Host Virulent Pathogen Conducive Environment Diseases reduce harvest yield by limiting plant growth or render products unmarketable. Most plant diseases are caused by pathogenic fungus, but viruses, microscopic worms, parasitic plants, and bacteria cause important diseases Bacterial soft rot Postharvest disease bud to storage and shipping conditions Enterobacteriaceae Within the soil and come into physical contact during root growth, and rain splash dispersal Pectobacterium carotovorum subspecies carotovorum(Pcc): widest host range Adheres to the skin of potatoes Can infect the potato because of wounds Moisture also leads to excessive growth into the potato Characteristics: Softened of infected tissue, discoloration, and an overpowering odor occurs when potatoes are improperly stored in pantries or drawers for extended periods Knowledge is critical to understand microbial pathogenicity and how microbes can endanger our food supply |
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| Research Question | What are the effects of differing numbers of potato inoculations? Do more punctures lead to a faster rot time period? Do no punctures lead to no rotting? |
| Predictions | The more punctures that are on a potato, the faster the potato will rot. |
| Experimental Design | We would get 5 potatoes and each of those potatoes would go through the normal process of dipping them in bleach (30 minutes) and then we dry it. After that, we would take a stick and dip it in the inoculant. Now for each of the five potato’s we would puncture them different amounts of times with the now infected stick ( 4, 8 and 12 times in three of them and zero in the fourth as a control group) then just leave them out in the same environment for days and observe the different rates at which they rot. The independent variable is the number of times we punctured the potato with the inoculant covered stick and the dependent variable is the rate of rot. We would observe the changes in the potato every day for 14 days and try to quantify the rate at which the potatoes produce the soft rot. |
| Investigation Theme | PGST |
| Grade Level | High School Students (Grades 9,10,11,12) |
| School Name | California Academy of Mathematics and Science |
| Session | Fall 2020 |