Effects of Temperature on Tetrahymena Growth

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the effects of temperature on the growth of Tetrahymena thermophilia and at which temperatures do we see T. Thermophilia experience the most and least growth. We chose 3 sets of temperatures for this study, 25 °C, 30 °C, 40 °C, and carried out multiple replicates per set of temperature. Over a span of 48 hours, we collected samples and did cell counts to determine how each temperature category was affecting the cell growth. Over the two days, we took cell counts at 3-hour time intervals starting from 9:30am to 5:00pm, counting 3 times per day. Our results didn’s show any particular optimal growth at the temperatures specified, however we did notice that there was a wider distribution range for the cell count box plot at 30 °C. We had initially expected T. thermophilia to exhibit the strongest growth at the 30 °C, which is something we saw, however growth in the other two temperatures were relatively similar. Overall this study was used to confirm or contradict past experiments and showed strong correlations to past results seen in some capacity.