The effects of increasing iron chloride concentrations on the population growth of Tetrahymena thermophila

Abstract

This study examined the effect of different iron concentrations on the population size of Tetrahymena thermophila. Iron is an essential nutrient for these organisms and contributes to population growth. Three treatments were prepared, using a standard control medium used in T. thermophila studies containing a small portion of iron, 2.012 M and 4.011M of iron in a standard growth medium. Over a period of 25 hours, samples were collected and population numbers were counted at one-hour intervals. It was found that in all three treatments populations increased in size relatively constantly over the first 10-hour period, with little difference among them. After analysis of the data collected, we found the results were not statistically significant and we were unable to draw any conclusions about the effect of iron on population size.