Hot or Cold: The effect of temperature on the growth rate of Tetrahymena thermophila

Abstract

Tetrahymena thermophila is a ciliated eukaryotic protozoan that lives in temperate freshwater ecosystems. In this experiment, we examined the effect of temperature on the growth rate of T. thermophila. We predicted that decreasing temperature leads to a decrease in growth rate. In our experiment, T. thermophila was incubated at three different temperatures 25^oC, 30^oC, and 35^oC; with a set of four replicates for each temperature. Cell counts were taken at 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 hours after incubation, and cell concentrations were calculated from those counts. Based on a one-way ANOVA, the p-value was 0.013. We rejected our null hypothesis and provided support for our alternate hypothesis which stated that temperature has an effect on the growth rate of T. thermophila.