NIOO-KNAW Netherlands Institute of Ecology 
Wageningen, Netherlands İlan Özeti
The NIOO‑KNAW Netherlands Institute of Ecology in Wageningen is offering an MBO or HBO internship titled “Good food supports good science.” Interns will work on a two‑month project focused on improving long‑term culture of the freshwater rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus. The role involves setting up and maintaining cultures of several algae species (Chlamydomonas rheinhardtii, Cryptomonas sp., Monoraphidium minutum) and conducting feeding experiments to identify optimal mixed‑diet combinations that sustain rotifer growth. Results will inform a standard operating protocol for rotifer culture. The internship is open to students and provides hands‑on experience in ecological research and laboratory techniques.
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Proje Açıklaması
General context
The freshwater rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus has some unique features that make it ideal for addressing specific ecological and evolutionary questions. Thanks to its small size, short generation time and cyclic parthenogenetic reproduction it is very well-suited for laboratory experiments at the population level. Unfortunately, long term maintenance of experimental cultures often proves difficult as they require intensive daily maintenance and clonal populations run high risk of dying out in the longer run.
Aim of the project
We hypothesize that the difficulties of long-term culturing of B. calyciflorus populations stems from the fact that food sources typically consist of just one single algal food source and we suspect that the biochemical content (e.g. sterols, amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins) of such food is too incomplete to ensure robust rotifer population growth. For this reason, we have selected a number of promising algal species that, when combined with each other, may provide a better food source. The idea is to test which algal combination is best in sustaining rotifer growth.
Project Outline
The work will first consist of setting up and maintaining cultures of different species of algae (more specifically, Chlamydomonas rheinhardtii, Cryptomonas sp. and Monoraphidium minutum). When these cultures are established, they will be used in feeding experiments designed to evaluate the suitability of mixed diets on the population success of B. calyciflorus.
The end goal of the internships is to use the results of the experiment to develop a standard operation protocol (SOP) that describes an improved culture method for rotifer populations.
Duration
At least 2 months
Akademik İletişim
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