The first lab work in the lab has finally started! Two undergraduates, with help from a graduate student from the Soltis lab, started the process of growing ferns from spores. They mixed up a nutrient medium that was poured into plates which are cooling on the bench at this moment. Tomorrow we will sow spores on the plates, and they’ll live in a growth chamber until gametophytes germinate, hopefully in the next few weeks. Then the fun will really begin – having a stock of gametophytes will enable studies on mating systems, physiology and morphology, as well as transcriptome sequencing of this generation of the life cycle that is part of the OneKP project. Stay tuned for news, and photos of gametophytes!