Biotechnology Unit Review

The purpose of biotechnology is to make life easier for us, by manipulating living things. There are four types of biotech: Industrial and Environmental, Agricultural, Medical and Pharmaceutical, and Diagnostic Research. This unit also covered polymerase chain reactions which is the duplication of DNA with added information or primers, as well as gel electrophoresis and bio-ethics. The labs were definitely confusing but the whole idea of bioethics was incredibly interesting because it was more about people and values. I really have to crack down and study on PCR and all our labs before the test because I definitely need a better understanding of the process and objective itself.

I learned more about genetically modified food and since people are always talking about GMOs it was cool to finally learn what eating genetically modified food meant. I also learned about PGLO and that it has many properties and can grow only in specific mixtures. I still need to work on understanding the PGLO lab but at least I know what PGLO means and that is an improvement from not knowing anything.

Here is our Gel electrophoresis lab: 

This is our PGLO lab under normal room light:

PGLO Lab Analysis

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 none none none + pGLO LB/amp 37 grayish yellow white + pGLO LB/amp/ara 28 Greyish yellow Fluorescent yellow/ green

2.	What two new traits do your transformed bacteria have?
	They clump together in colonies and they have a fuzzy border around them and some have more lots of clear colonies but some have a mushy colony.
3.	Estimate how many bacteria were in the 100 uL of bacteria that you spread on each plate. Explain your logic.
	It would be impossible to count exactly how much bacteria there is because live bacteria is constantly growing and expanding but if we moved one colony then I approximate that there was 100 plus live bacteria samples transferred.
4.	What is the role of arabinose in the plates?
	I believe the arabinose acts as a culture for the bacteria to help improve growth and promote the increase in bacteria sample.
5.	List and briefly explain three current uses for GFP (green fluorescent protein) in research or applied science.
	GFP can be used in military science as a glow in the dark mechanism for underwater exploration. It can be used to make glow sticks and those collars for dogs and people to keep them safe in the dark. It’s a hard question because GFP by itself is just a protein sample from a jellyfish, but maybe it can be used to insert in animals or people to make them glow in the dark.
6.	Give an example of another application of genetic engineering. Genetic engineering is the manipulation of genes and an example of that would be genetically modified food. Food that has had been altered and manipulated for maximum harvest counts as genetic engineering and is a common form of biotechnology.

Gel Electrophoresis Lab

When we analyzed the gel, there were  only a little difference from our reference dye and candy extracted dye. It was mainly color wise, but even so, it was by a couple of shades. The dyes stayed together for the most part, however the yellow managed to spread and cross the red dye. I think the dye that resembles the dyes we used would be the Fast Green FCF since the dyes we had migrated up and down and seemed to spread out from the side.

The main enticement for the sale of food items is how they look. If a hunk of meat looks rotten or grey, people simply wont buy it. In the sale of dog food, it doesn't matter to the dog how it looks; they are color blind, however, for people, the look of the food in their house or their dogs diet is incredibly important and so dog food companies invest in making the food more appetizing not for the dog, but for the human instead. Even the food that human eat, if mac and cheese is defined by the orange/ yellow cheese even if it is chemically based. 

The two things that control the migration of DNA is the electricity and the buffers acting on the gel. The electricity is the thing that acts on the DNA and causes it to move up the gel floor. The DNA groups by size of the dye and groups by their size automatically after adding electricity. I believe DNA with molecular weights in Daltons move and separate by size and weight. The 600s stay with the 600s and the 1000s with the 1000s and so forth.

New Year Goals

This semester I will plan on world domination. Just joking, in biology I want to like the class. I don't understand biology in a whole, therefore i am unable to appreciate the class, but by taking the time to go back and mentally tell myself, this is interesting, I hope I can like the class more.

Another goal is to get better at basketball and field hockey. I will be able to shoot anywhere on the court and make it as well as handle the ball like I can do it in my sleep. I will be able to dominate on defense and get strong enough to fight for rebounds and steals. In field hockey, I will be able to control the ball better and maneuver around defenders, which I can not do currently. I can work on both sports by practicing and not giving up even when it would be so easy to do so. 

Unit Five Reflection

This unit we asked the question: What does our genetic code look like, and how does it work? All of us are made up of DNA, and the very DNA we have our great, great, great, great, grandparents had first. DNA carries the genetic code that determines how we look. How does DNA do that? First the DNA copies itself in a process called transcription. Then, it goes from two strands to one, and becomes RNA by recopying the part it lost with RNA codes. Then the finished RNA goes to the ribosome that reads the RNA and translates it into amino acid codes, or Codons. That amino acid makes up our protein, and that protein makes up our features. If a mutation, or change in the code occurs, the entire pattern can be messed up and in turn affect the end protein product.  In this unit I had trouble understanding gene regulation and even now I still have to look over my notes to check on the difference between an operator and promoter.

This unit teaches us about how our body is able to function and why we look how we look. It is important to know this because if you decided to have a child, you would want to know how it would grow and take the genes from you and turn into a individual. Or, a more serious reason, if you or your child has a mutation in your DNA code, it may have severe to no consequences. It would be really cool if you could provide a sample and scientists could track and map your exact DNA and RNA codons, and the exact order of your bases.

This is a copy right free photo of DNA replication

Protein Synthesis Lab

In this lab we asked the question "how does the body produce protein".  First we copied the DNA over, then transcripted it into RNA form with means that it loses the thymine base and gains the uracil base in return. After that the RNA was translated into the final protein. the mRNA bonds with the ribosome which reads and translates the amino acid combination. The codon, or code is what the ribosome translates, and that is what finally becomes the protein. 

http://science-explained.com/theory/dna-rna-and-protein/

Something that affect the making of protein is called mutations. Mutation alter the original DNA structure which messes up the RNA structure which messes up the ribosomes reading of the amino acids. Deletion deletes an actual part of the base, where substitution replaces a base. Insertion simply adds another base into the structure. The more the mutation alters the protein, the more fatal it is in the organism. based on my observations, frame-shift mutations are the most deadly, for they completely mess up the order of the bases. If a mutation occurs in the start of a function, it has a far worse affect than if it occurs at the end of a sequence, because it messes up the whole order of the sequence. 

http://study.com/academy/lesson/insertion-mutation-diseases-examples-quiz.html

I chose the frame-shift mutation of deletion for my own mutation because I thought it would cause the most damage. By deleting a base at the start of the sequence, other than the start codon, the amino acids were all different to the control no mutation sequence. If that was in a person, it would have a fatal mutation because the protein was totally messed up. 

http://www.yourgenome.org/facts/what-types-of-mutation-are-there

This relates to our lives because what if we have a mutation? What if our child has a fatal mutation, and needs surgery or something worse? Mutations are everywhere, and the more altering the mutation, the more noticeable it is. An example of an mutation is skin color, or in the example below, frog color. The mutation causes it to have green skin or white skin. The one with white has a higher chance of ddying because its color has no camoflauge. 

                           http://www.animalpicturesarchive.com/Arch01/1084721406.jpg                                                                                   http://www.alanbauer.com/images/Critters/tree%20frog.jpg

Human DNA Extraction Lab

In this lab we asked the question, "How can DNA be separated from cheek cells to order to study?". First, We used Gatorade as a polar liquid and swirled it in our mouth and mixed it with salt and dish soap. We also added pineapple juice to the solution before mixing it with alcohol for its catabolic protease effects to break down the proteins that the DNA molecules wraps itself around.We then added cold alcohol, a nonpolar substance so the DNA would fall out of the solution and precipitate, or to cause a substance to be deposited in solid form from a substance. If the steps were followed properly, then the DNA should have floated up to the top of the solution and hovered in the nonpolar alcohol solution. There are three steps for DNA extraction homogenization, lysis and precipitation.  IF the whole lab worked out and we had our DNA sample, we were given a option to use a transfer pipette to move the DNA to a small container to carry around.

Some possible errors that could have occurred while doing this lab were mixing the right amount of liquid into the solution, mishandling the solutions, and maybe even not being a human being, cause then you would not have any DNA. I know for a fact that I ruined my sample for I added the alcohol too fast and it mixed in with my DNA Gatorade juice. That totally ruined my DNA because instead of floating to the top, it was stuck in the middle bobbing up and down and totally confused. Another mistake that could have happened was there were no set amounts of Gatorade or anything to say how much we could add, it was all up to the group and person, and if we had a set control measurement, then the results of the lab may have been more similar.

We did this lab to help us understand how DNA works and how knowing how DNA unravels we can learn how it is made. We also did this lab as an alternative to learning out of a book how DNA is made. Somethings I learned from this lab that I didn't know before was what homogenization meant, and that DNA had proteins called histones. I relate this to the vodcast we did about how DNA copies itself. Since we did this lab we can maybe go further into the DNA we produce and look at maybe comparing the DNA samples of different species. Here are some pictures from our lab:

Here is a funny pun:



I guess you could say this write-up was KOALA- TEA.