PCR and Gel electrophoresis animations

Class,

Excellent virtual lab review site:

PCR is a method of making millions of copies of DNA from a tiny sample.  Please go through the animation at this website to learn about it.  you should be able to outline these steps.

Gel electrophoresis is a method of taking cut up DNA and separating it base on length.  Please go through this virtual lab, also.

GMO lab write-ups

Hello class,

here's the format for the GMO write-up.

Write up for the lab:

1.  -Purpose

2.  -Draw the plates and label them.

3.  -Explain your group’s results (suggest why it didn’t work).  Then explain the ideal results.  Explain specifically what each was meant to show.  (Think about what a negative test would mean.)

4.  -Explain what was happening in our successful plate (#4).

5.  -I had one group that plated the PGLO- bacteria on the LB/ampicillin/arabinose plate (you know who you are...).  What would you expect to see?

AlAlso, be sure you can aswer these questions.  I will give a brief quiz on lab procedure tomorrow:

1.  What do restriction enzymes do?

2.  What do ligases do?

3.  Why was ampicillin important in this lab?

4.  What role did the arabinose play?

The homework:  Read pages 325-328 in the book.  focus on the process of selection and the use of the blue or white colonies to determine genes.  We're learning this as background.

Good resources

1.  The video from Nova:  Life's greatest miracle

2.  IVF sites of value:

3.  Amniocentesis sites of value:

big things controlled by small things

Class,

We spoke of how a tiny embryo can take over an entire fully grown female.  Some questions came up about the amazing relationships between small parasites and their big hosts.  This radiolab addresses some of those amazing relationships.