Soil Food Web Epi-Fluorescence Microscope Kit

There are two distinct uses for epi-fluorescent microscopy: First, colonization of roots by mycorrhizal fungi is easy to see (Ames, R. and E. Ingham, 1984) as VAM fungi produce autofluorescent compounds at the interface of the arbuscular cell wall and the plant cell membrane. With gridded cameras images, it is easy to see the percentage of the total root length occupied by active arbuscules colonization can be easily assessed. Count the number of grids in root that has fluorescent arbuscules present in the grid and count the total grids looked at. Grids with fluorescent arbuscules divided by total grids with and without fluorescent arbuscules times 100 gives percent colonization. Work by John Moore and a second person back in 1999 (I hope the reference for this paper is in our website list of references) showed that in grasses, 12% colonization gives measurable benefit to the plant, but 40% colonization allows ALL the benefits to be realized. The second use for epi-fluorescent microsco