unit 7 reflection

Unit 7 was all about ecology and the environment. A large part of this unit was about how we are affecting the environment in a bad way. We not only watched vodcasts and did activities demonstrating how the environment works, but we also talked about how plastic and other human made products are ruining this environment. The plastics and materials we use everyday send toxins and other harmful chemicals into the air. We watched two movies that really highlighted this idea. The first was "bag it", it highlighted the idea on how plastic in general is harming the world. plastic cant be dissolved or truly thrown away forever; it just sits in our oceans and on our streets. I'd like to learn more about not only the environment, but the animals that live in the environment. I'd like to explore the different traits of the animals that live in each niche. During this unit, we also did a project called the " conservation project". In this project, the purpose was to choose a certain habitat in the world and focus on how to help that local climate and niche prosper better. we worked very well in a group together, and found ways to share the work evenly. Our project was on the Citarum river, and how all of the trash that littered the banks need to be cleaned up.  This unit went very well for us, and flew by like a breeze.

20 Time Elevator Pitch

my 20 time elevator pitch on channelization.

gell electrophoresis virtual lab

Gel Electrophoresis Virtual Lab Worksheet Name_jake beine_

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/labs/gel/

Make a prediction:

1. How do you think you could figure out the lengths of the strands in the tube of DNA? We could put the DNA strands in the gel and see how far they stretch.

Go through the simulation:

2. What is the process called in which we measure the DNA microscopically?   Gel electrophoresis

3. What is the “gel”?   The filter that sorts the DNA strands.

4. Write down the step of gel electrophoreses
1. make the gel

2.  put it in the other box with water

3. add an electric current to the gel

4. take out the gel and stain it, then put it onto the UV light to see how the DNA has moved.

5. What does the current do the DNA samples? the electric current carries the DNA away from the negative charge and through the gel.

6. What kinds of strand move quickly and further down the gel? the standard sized DNA strands moved the furthest down the gel.

7. What kinds of strand move slower and lag behind? The sample DNA strand moved slower and lacked behind the other strands.

8. What about the strand that are the same length? they both moved the same distance from the wells that they were placed in.

9. What helps us see the DNA strand in the gel? Staining the gel helps bring out the colors of the DNA and allows us to get accurate results.

10. What are the ingredients to make a gel? Tris-Acetate-EDTA (TAE) ,agarose, ethidium bromide and the seaweed gel.

11. After you load the DNA sample into the tray, what is the next step? connect all of the electrical cables and create a current of both positive and negative charges.

12. How do you know current is running through the gel? there will be bubbles coming up through the liquid.

13. After the gel is done, what must you do to it before you can analyze your results? you must put the gell in a liquid that will stain it and allow the DNA to be visible.

14. How long does this process take? around 30 min of waiting time.

15. What type of light do you use to view the gel? Is it safe and what precautions would you might need to use? You use UV light to see the DNA. UV is unsafe for long periods of time, so cover your skin and eyes.

16. Write your size estimates below:

1. Strand 1_____medium___________

2. Strand 2 _____small______________

3. Strand 3 _____large______________

17. Could you list one reason why we would run a Gel electrophoresis on someone and explain your answer. We could use gel electrophoresis on people to determine if their related, by seeing if their DNA is similar.

Relate and Review

Electrophoresis is the separation of DNA, RNA and proteins from a strand. We use this to determine how big or small the DNA strands are, or to compare and contrast certain sets of DNA. I better understand how DNA can be moved throughout using electrical currents. In this experiment the DNA strands moved away from the negative charge and showed up throughout the gel. This information could come in handy later on while doing other experiments along the line of DNA and RNA strands or movement.

unit 6 reflection

Unit 6 was an interesting unit. We learned alot about bioethics and biotechnology. Bioethics is important concepts. we Did many labs influenced by the concept electrophoresis. the ethics of medical and biological research. We went over the different ways that doctors use biotechnology to help cure diseases and defects. It has been tested on animals for years, but has just recently been used in small doses on humans. Unit 6 helped us to understand how all this works by teaching us about plasmids, restriction enzymes, ligase, PGLO and other Electrophoresis is the movement of charged particles in a fluid or gel under the influence of an electric field. This can be used for many things, but the reason we did it was to find out which food dyes are the worst for you and contain the most chemicals. I had some strengths in this unit such as being able to find the DNA pairs that match up and understanding that electricity makes the dyes move in electrophoresis. A negative of mine in this unit was my unability to understand the steps in the labs. On one lab i messed up and our results came out differently from other groups. I would love to learn more about how biotechnology can help cure mutations someday. At the beggining of the semester i made the goals to finish all CFUs and do all homework before it is due. I am exceeding on the CFUs, but i missed one homework assignment i didn’t know about. Overall this unit has helped increase my knowledge and made me a better student.  

pGLO Observations , Data Recording & Analysis

1.

Obtain your team plates.  Observe your set of  “+pGLO” plates under room light and with UV light.  Record numbers of colonies and color of colonies. Fill in the table below. Plate Number of Colonies Color of colonies under room light Color of colonies under   UV light - pGLO LB carpet white white - pGLO LB/amp 0 transparent N/a + pGLO LB/amp 110 white spots white + pGLO LB/amp/ara 640 yellow green fluorescent green

2.	What two new traits do your transformed bacteria have? The bacteria is resilient to ampicillin and it glows fluorescent green.
3.	Estimate how many bacteria were in the 100 uL of bacteria that you spread on each plate. Explain your logic. There were around 741 total bacteria colonies. we covered the bacteria with graph paper, measured the number of bacteria clumps in that area, then multiplied it by the number of spaces that the graph paper covered.
4.	What is the role of arabinose in the plates?
	Arabinose is used mainly as an inducer. Under regular temperatures and conditions the bacteria will not create fluorescent colors, but under the given conditions it will.
5.	List and briefly explain three current uses for GFP (green fluorescent protein) in research or applied science. Many scientists are trying to see if it could someday cure cancer. Other scientists use it in plants and animals to see if they carry curtain plasmids. They can also figure out what different bacterias are living within organisms by putting the PGLO solution in it.
6.	Give an example of another application of genetic engineering.

Another application of genetic engineering are frost resistant plants, by giving the plant the PGLO plasmid and the frost resistant plasmid, we will know if it is frost resistant when we shine UV light on it and it glows fluorescent.

electrophorisis lab questions

Focus Questions
1.  When you analyzed the results of your gel, did any of your experimental samples contain dyes that did
not match the four reference dyes? For example, did any of your samples produce:
a.  Dye bands that are a different size than any of the reference bands?
b.  Dyes that are a different color than any of the reference bands?
c.  More than one color band?
d.  Dyes that you observed moving in the “wrong” direction (toward the cathode)?
What might these dyes be?

yes. one sample contained orange skittle dye and it still contained the orange color when the lab was over. The orange dye was also bigger in width than the others at the end of the lab.


2.  Look at the structures of the dyes pictured here. Which of these dyes would migrate similarly to the dyes
you examined in this lab? Why?

Fast green FCF,  Citrus red 2, and Betanin would all have mostly the same affect as the dyes demonstraited in the lab because they contained similar dye colors and densities as the others.

3.  Many popular dry dog foods and dog treats have FD&C dyes among their ingredients. For example,
Beneful dry food contains Yellow 5, Red 40, Yellow 6, and Blue 2, and Snausages Breakfast Bites
contain Red 40 lake, Yellow 6 lake, and Yellow 5 lake. (Lake dyes are the insoluble forms of the FD&C
dyes.)
Why do dog food manufacturers put artificial food colors in dog food?

they put artificial color in dog food to give it a more appealing look and to gain the attention of the buyers. The dye doesn't change how the treats taste, or anything. The point of the colors is to make the food more appealing and appetizing.



5.  What two factors control the distance the colored dye solutions migrate?

the density and consentration of the dye are the main factors affecting how far the different colored dyes move in the gel. The conductivity of the dyes also has some factors involving how far the dyes move.

6.  What force helps move the dyes through the gel?

The amount of energy that flows through the gel between the conductivity points helps move the dyes through the gel. If the watts are turned up, then there will be more electricity flowing through the gel, and the colors will move away from the negative charge faster.

7.  What component of the electrophoresis system causes the molecules to separate by size? Explain

The molecules will separate by size due to the density of the dye in the molecule. The lighter and smaller molecules will move further along then the larger heavier ones. It is also easier for the lighter molecules to move away from the negative charge, then it is for the heavier larger ones to.


8.  Agarose electrophoresis is commonly used to separate molecules of DNA. Explain how you expect DNA
molecules with molecular weights of 600, 1000, 2000, and 5000 daltons to separate.

I would expect the DNA with the greater number of daltons to be separated into groups that also contain roughly the same number of daltons. The DNA samples that don't contain a large number of daltons would also be picked out and put together. The DNA is arranged by the number of daltons that the segments contain.

recombinant DNA lab

In the recombinant DNA lab, the antibiotics we used Bam HI, Hpa II and Xma I. Our plasmid had antibiotic genes to Tetracycline. I would not use any of the other 6 antibiotics because their nucleotides don't match up. Restriction enzymes are enzymes that are able to code a short specific nucleotide sequence in DNA. The function of restriction enzymes is to cut the backbones of the molecules at that sequence. We used Xma I because it cut the DNA sequence closest to the insulin gene site. If you use a restricted enzyme to cut it in two places, you wouldn't be able to have recombinant DNA. This is important to everyday life because it helps give people with diabetes the chance to live a regular life by helping to create insulin for their bodies. Antibiotics could also be used to help strep throat and cure infections by giving your body good bacteria.