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Because of COVID-19, microbiologists who are used to being in the lab are now looking for experiments to do at home. While some are baking bread, others are making Winogradsky columns. What is a Winogradsky column? Don’t worry, we’ll get to what exactly one is, but for now, you can think of it as a way to grow microbes. And instead of brewing microbes and eating them like with fermented foods, you can brew microbes in the soil and watch them create beautiful patterns and colors.

In this post, I’ll cover what a Winogradsky column is, where it got its name, what microbial communities are, why you’d want to make a Winogradsky column, and how to create your own. Then, I’ll conclude with some photos of different columns. Grab your shovel, prepare to get muddy, let’s get to work.

What is a Winogradsky column?

A Winogradsky column is a method of growing microorganisms that you can do anywhere if you have some mud, a jar or bottle, and a few other simple supplies.

What you do is you collect some mud and water, add egg yolk and paper to the mud, top it with a loose-fitting lid, set it in the sun, and let the microbes do the rest of the work.

With the mud inside of a clear container, the microbes begin to reveal themselves in different layers of different colors based on the microbes that can grow in those particular layers. Different microbes prefer certain conditions and will or will not grow depending on how much oxygen or light is available at the top versus the bottom. And so this jar of mud can transform into one of the most beautiful and interesting science experiments that you can do at home.

The fun part is adding other ingredients like different metals or salts, or varying the parameters like how much sun it gets or where you collect your mud and water from.

Why is it called a Winogradsky column?

A microbiologist named Sergei Winogradsky from Russia lived in the 1880s and developed this method to better understand microbial communities. He wanted to study the microbes when they were together—in mixed culture—rather than in pure culture or isolated as individual species. In pure culture, you separate the bacteria from their natural community. And you study just that one species on its own. But Winogradsky wanted to work with the species together to understand microbial communities, how they interact, and the types of resources they prefer when they’re all together.

What is a microbial community?

A microbial community is a group of microbes that all live together in a particular environment. And in the lab, it’s actually quite challenging to study microbial communities because you have to deal with multiple species, which gets very complicated very quickly.

In the late 1800s, the microbiologist Robert Koch figured out how to separate individual species through the pure culture method. He isolated microbes from infections and then tested to see whether they were the causes of the infections. Being able to pinpoint what specific microbe is causing a particular infection is crucial in figuring out how to treat that infection.

However, it’s also clear that microbes do not live in isolation. Most of the time, they are together in communities, especially in the body where infections occur but even out in nature in the soil—in the mud.

And so, Sergei Winogradsky wanted to understand microorganisms in their natural habitat, in their natural surroundings, with their natural fellow occupants in competition.

Why make a Winogradsky column?

Making a Winogradsky column is a great activity to teach kids about microbes. And it’s fun because you get to play with mud and experiment with different ingredients. You could even create multiple columns to try out different parameters. One column could have mud from one location, and another column could have mud from another location. You can try out various water sources like water from springs, a river, or from the ocean. See how changing the temperature or the amount of light one of your columns gets alters the colors (i.e., which microbes can grow).

It does, however, take weeks for it to actually start producing some color. So, initially, it will simply look like mud. But then slowly but surely, over the course of 4 to 8 weeks, you’ll see different colors develop, indicating you have different microbes growing in your column. And so it’s fun to monitor your Winogradsky column as it changes. Take pictures as it goes.

The before photo of the Winogradsky columns in cell culture flasks from above. Photo kindly provided by Donato Giovannelli.

How to make a Winogradsky Column

Sources: JoVE, A Field Guide to Bacteria, American Museum of Natural History, Heather Flanagan, Project MICROBE

Materials

Bucket

Shovel

Spoon

Bowls

Tall jar or plastic bottle or tennis ball canister

Scissors

Plastic wrap

Rubber band

Basic ingredients

Mud (source of microbes)

Water (source of microbes)

Egg yolk (sulfur source)

Newspaper (carbon source)

Sunlight or Lamp (light source)

Other ingredients to try

Straw

Leaves

Bark

Metal

Shells

Insect parts

Salt

Epsom salts

Acid source

Alkaline source

Instructions

Draw a line on your bottle at about ¼ from the top and then another line at about ¼ from the bottom. Go out and collect some mud and water. Cut the newspaper into small pieces. In a small mixing bowl, add the egg yolk (raw or hard-boiled) and newspaper and a small amount of mud, at least as much to fill the bottle ¼ of the way. If you are including additional ingredients, add them to this mixture. Fill the bottle ¼ way with the mud, egg yolk, newspaper mixture. Add mud to the top line. Add water almost to the top. Leave a small amount of space. Cover the column with plastic wrap and a rubber band (do not put a tight lid on because it may explode due to gases released by the microbes). Set it in the sunlight or under a lamp. Let your column go and watch for changes over the next 4 to 8 weeks. Take pictures of the changes and share them with me on Twitter.

Winogradsky column before (left) and after (right). Photo kindly provided by Michael Perez.

What do different Winogradsky columns look like?

Below are some different Winogradsky columns from folks on Twitter who were willing to contribute their photos. And as you can see, Winogradsky columns can vary drastically. Some are really colorful, others are less colorful. And that may also depend on how long the Winogradsky column had been going before the photo was taken. Some of these are before and after photos, which is really fun. So, you can actually see how this all works.

Here's a closeup of one I did a few years back – feel free to use. Using this one as the startup screen on my laptop. pic.twitter.com/VMGD3J4KAZ — Patrik D'haeseleer (@PatrikD) March 31, 2020

Here are a few from my lab at Bard! pic.twitter.com/nNexJc7ghq — Brooke Jude (@violetmicrobe) March 31, 2020

Not the best photos but a time course (3 to 6 weeks). We use the @BIOINTERACTIVE #WinogradskyColumn activity in my lab class with control, carbon, sulfur, and carbon+sulfur. This year we tried using DE instead of soil but we set those up right before campus shut down 🙁 pic.twitter.com/416KCvAJ2b — Dave Westenberg (@GermJuggler) March 31, 2020

Here are a few of mine and a gorgeous one made by Neil Baker for the @ASMicrobiology exhibit at the first USA Science and Engineering Festival back in 2011. pic.twitter.com/HR3l7ooBFF — Dave Westenberg (@GermJuggler) March 31, 2020

They are inaccessible due to COVID19 but we snapped this photo before our spring break. @Anna_Schwyter ☝🏼 pic.twitter.com/Ac6nBysMlN — Karen Vaughan (@vaughan_soil) March 31, 2020

Here you go :https://t.co/FPIox8EzSs — Romy Chakraborty (@ChakrabortyRomy) March 31, 2020

I’ve got a big one in my yard. Mesh covering on the top to prevent mosquito larvae. pic.twitter.com/YwcyFhKIIv — Mo Kaze #BlackLivesMatter (@MoKrobial) March 31, 2020

I have my 2 in my profile photo with me but here's some more photos! They've only been going for about 6 weeks but they're doing well. I have the gps coordinates for where I collected the mud too. pic.twitter.com/fJ322NmfQH — Pat Taylor (@PaddyKTaylor) March 31, 2020

And if you have a microscope, you can even explore the microbes that way as well.

Here is another pic.twitter.com/JOn7EuDgbl — Arash Komeili (@micromagnets) March 31, 2020

The largest Winogradsky column I’ve ever seen was at the Harvard Museum of Natural History exhibit Microbial Life: A Universe at the Edge of Sight. Here’s how it was made. Photo by Emily Nowicki.

So, go out and play in the mud. Let me know how it goes!

Other Winogradsky column resources

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