The effects of temperature changes on the flagellar growth rate of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Abstract

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a commonly used organism in biological laboratory research. The purpose of our study is to determine the impact of temperature on flagellar regrowth in C. reinhardtii.  Our mode of experimentation involves inducing a brief pH shock, to force deflagellation, followed by observations of the time for flagellar regrowth. In our experiment, we test the importance of temperature on flagellar regrowth. Our alternate hypothesis states that increasing or decreasing the optimal temperature (20°C) has an effect on the flagellar regeneration rate of C. reinhardtii. Prior research suggested that flagellar regrowth rates would be optimal at temperatures of around 20°C, with variations from this temperature resulting in decreased growth rates.  We utilize several treatments and replicates to conduct the experiment for a duration of 15 minutes, making observations at 5 minute intervals.  Ultimately, our results were not significant in which we failed to reject our null hypothesis that temperature does not have an effect on flagellar regrowth rates in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.