Second attempt

The extraction for the the tomato and the carrot came out really well but there was a slight problem. When I was extracting the DNA from the tomato, I didn't yield a high amount of DNA so I had roughly 0.1mL of tomato DNA and after running it through the Gel I was left with practically nothing. So the bad news is that I will have to extract more DNA from the tomato. The second part of the bad news is that when I was pippetting I accidentally tore the well in the gel where I was placing the DNA and didn't notice it so nothing came up on the gel except for the carrots DNA. Next step is to extract more DNA from more plants and then run then through the PCR to amplify it.

Good news

Well the good news is that the wizard kit actually worked and although it was a bit difficult to understand once I got it done the first time it was quite easy after that. I ran the extracted DNA in the gel box and there was some DNA present so that was pretty exciting. At first when I saw the gel it was quite disappointing but looks can be deceiving a closer look at it under a UV light showed that there was indeed some DNA present in my samples. The samples present below were that of a lettuce leaf. Now that I know it works it is time to extract more DNA from different vegetable and fruits.  

The Struggle

Well this past week hasn't been all that easy for me going back and forth on what I want to do. I have been an intern here at phoenix college for about two years now which is a very long time. Currently I have no clue if I want to continue this internship so I spoke with Amanda. I'm currently trying to find something that I'm passionate about which I have yet to find. It's a big struggle for me to find something which I am passionate about. I have done a wide range of jobs, internships, and volunteer work solely for the purpose of finding something that is interesting to me. Even though I'm in this dilemma I will strive to do my best with everything, don't get me wrong I love being in the Biosciences department but I think I may need a change of environment or maybe I'm just freaking out and there is nothing to worry about.

Electrophoresis

Well last week I began my DNA extraction protocol and found it quite easy to do, or so I thought. When the time came to using the Wizard kit it was difficult to follow the protocol that came with the kit so I was asking Matt tons of questions regarding how to use it. After a while of going back and forth with Matt I was able to write a protocol in my own words. At first it took me quite some time to get used to the process but I believe that after a while I will be able to do it in a much faster pace since everything is practically repetitive. Tomorrow I will be running my extracted DNA though a gel to find out if I have any type of DNA present in my sample. When that is complete I will be running the rest of my sample through a PCR machine.

CaMV 35S

CaMV stands for Cauliflower Mosaic Virus which is a pararetrovirus (reverse transcribing viruses because they replicate through an RNA intermediate) that infect plants. Pararetrovirus replicate through reverse transcription (Creates single stranded DNA from an RNA) but the viral particles contain DNA instead of RNA. CaMV induces a variety of systemic symptoms such as mosaic (irregular leaf mottling), necrotic lesions on leaf surface, stunted growth, and deformation of the overall plant structure. Basically scientist modified this horrible virus to make it easier for them to infect a plant with a genetic mutation to alter the state in which the plant will grow into. CaMV 35S is used in most transgenic crops to activate foreign genes which have been artificially inserted into the plant. This enables the plant to operate in a wide range of host-organism environments which otherwise not be possible.

(The Science Creative Quarterly)