Phytophthora zoospores

Bit of a boring looking blip today, should have taken the picture earlier when I had hundreds more spores and it looked more impressive..

This is a picture of the swimming spores of a plant pathogen, the close relative of which causes the Irish potato famine in the 1800s. The spores hatch out from lemon-shaped containers when they come into contact with water, then they swim towards the plant, germinate and punch their way inside. Today I spent 3 tedious hours trying to collect enough spores to do a plant infection experiment.

See top left for a germinating spore! I'll post a more convincing picture later in the week when they've had a chance to do their thing.