The Diseased at Acalanes

For this lab we will be using the technique of PCR to extract the DNA to make it able to get he certain parts of the DNA we are searching for. In 1983, Karry Mullis at Cetus Corporation developed the molecular biology technique for this type of research which is called PCR. The reason we use PCR is that it produces a abundance of DNA in a test tube starting from a little bit of it. So basically it is a way of amplifying the DNA sequence, gene of interest. With this we can use the genomic DNA and just from a DNA sample no matter how small it can be made bigger amount so it has enough DNA to study with.

PCR is the best for genetic research, gene mapping, cloning, DNA sequencing, and gene detection and will be used in medical diagnostic. It will be a tool to detect the mutations that cause the genetic disease, also in criminal investigations and court of law to help identify the suspects, sequencing the human genome.



Procedure:

Day 1
Extract the cheek cells by chewing the in inside of your cheeks for 30 seconds
get the DNA and put the InstaGene Matrix inside of the small tube
put in the heat bath for 10 mins
heat then in the 94 degrees Celsius water bath
vortex the tube for 1 min
extract the water on the top of the tube and leave the clump on the bottom

Day 2
Add the loading dye to the DNA sample
and also add the controls of +/+ -/- +/- and marker to the gel in the last lane
add the DNA samples from the students samples
Run the gel *running to red for 15 mins
transfer gel when done to a dye stain tray
go to the back and add the blue stain to stain the DNA in the gel
put on rocker to marinade the gel over the weekend

Day 3 


Results:


i figured out what we were looking for was the having the so called "disease" and i ended up having the disease gene and only one person in our group was able to not have that gene.


Discussion:
a) i had no idea of what to hypothesis but we tested for the presence of an enzyme and the odds were high to have it show up as positive so i guessed i would be so called "diseased"

b) DONT chew too hard or else you will start to bleed from your cheeks and also make sure you do it long enough so you have enough cells.

GM or not to GM that is the question....

As the farmable land is disappearing agriculitural specialists are looking for an alternative to produce enough food to feed the growing populations. Also concerned about the use of pestocides and herocides on the population and the longterm effects could do to human health. The GM "genetically modified" plants can solve these problems but have been under great controversy of what it can and will do in the future of human health as well.

Genetic plants arent new but farmers have gradually started to used the GM plants for these specific traits. These preffered genes are being put into the plants and also having the pesticides put into the plants so the use of sprays are cut by a huge amount. This resistance gene is being taken from a soil bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis being put into the plant's genome.

People are not liking the GM plants because of the potentcial to create super-weeds through the cross polination with herbocide-resisant crops or also super-bugs will evolve over time to resist the pesticides. But the trade off is that the arguement of possibly better for the environment because of less chemicals being put into the atmosphere.

The GMO debate need to be proven by testing the foods found in grocery stores for the presence of GMO-derived products. This can be done by using an antibody-based test another is polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to look at the sequence common in GM foods. DNA is more resistant  than proteins in processing and can be extracted form even highly processed foods.

Playing god? Thats childs play, being god is a different story.....

Intro:
This lab involves us to perform "genetic tranformation" which invloves a pice of DNA which provides the instructions and it really means for us to change the genetic information. This entales us to take a gene and insert it into another organism inorder to change the organism's traits. The use of genetic transformation is is used in biomediation which is consisting of oilspill soaking bacteria and also it's used in agriculture. The use in agriculture is abundant and is used to prevent disease killing and to keep certain traits in plants to make a perfect crop. Its is in medicine as well, the diseases caused by defective genes are beginning to be treated by gene therapy by transformaing the sick persons cells with healthy coppies of the defactive gene to help with the disease.

The experiment we will be conducting involves us to transform bacteria with the gene with (GFP) or Green Fluorescent Protien which is in the sea jelly Aequorea Victoria. The bacteria will have this gene and express it under ultraviolet light and cause them to glow a brilliant green.

Using the plasmid we will learn how to be able to tranfer thes genes from one organism to the next and have a funn time doing it. The bacteria contain circular pieces of DNA called plasmids these contain genes for one or more of the organisms traits that could be important to the bacteria's survival.