pGLO Observations

1.

Plate	Number of Colonies	Color of Colonies under room light	Color of colonies under UV light
-pGLO LB	carpet	dark yellow	slightly purple/ dark yellow
-pGLO LB/amp	none	-	-
+pGLO LB/amp	150-200	dark yellow	slightly purple/ dark yellow
+pGLo LB/amp/ara	47	dark yellow	glowing green

2. One glows under the presence of UV light. One multiplied in colony size greatly, and one didn’t have any colonies at all.

3. There were 47 colonies for the plate with arabinose(counted), and the one with no plasmid but LB had an uncountable amount of colonies, resulting in “carpet”. The plate with no plasmid but had LB and ampicillin had no colonies at all, while the plate with the plasmid, LB, and ampicillin had 150-200 colonies of bacteria.

4. Arabinose is the sugar that essentially turns on and makes GFP glow green and is also an alternative carbon source for E.coli.

5. To test and see if inserting genes into organisms will work.

GFP shows us when proteins are made.

Researching why GFP developed in the Aequorea victoria jellyfish.

6. A) Engineering chickens to be fatter and bigger in order to sell more chicken.
B) Genetically altered grapes that are larger.

Candy Electrophoresis Lab Questions

1.
A ) no
B) no
C) yes
D) no
2. Betanin (beetroot red)- because it most closely represents a dye used for the gel.
3. Dye is added to animal food because it makes the literal food piece look more appetizing. Rather than a bland rough ball its more textured, meaty looking, and looks healthier, which will increase the chance someone will purchase it.
4. The strength of the positive and negative side, and also the structures of the dyes, whichever one is heavier moves less and whichever one moves more is lighter.
6. The current running through the gel pulls the dyes towards the anode.
7. The current running through the gel will attract the dyes, and whichever one can maneuver and pass through the structure of the gel the fastest are the smaller dyes, while the ones that move the slowest are the bigger dyes.

PC: Kimi Uenaka

PC: Kimi Uenaka

8. I expect the 600 to move far, towards the end of the gel, and the 1000 to move a little less, 2000 to move even less, and 5000 to move the least. 

Recombinant DNA Lab

Recombinant DNA Analysis

The process of producing recombinant DNA starts with cutting the Plasmid. After cutting it, we taped it into a ring using any order, creating our ring of DNA. Next, we cut the cell DNA out, and taped each strip together. We then used our restriction enzymes to find parts in our rings that matched. When we were done testing the 8 enzymes, whichever one was used in the DNA rings were to get cut. The insulin gene and the plasmid were then “spliced” together. We then tested to see if the plasmid was taken into the host bacteria cells. An example would be ampicillin, as it is an antibiotic that is usually able to kills bacterial cells.

1. Tetracycline, kanamycin, and ampicillin. I would use these three because these usually kill the host bacteria.
2. The restriction enzyme cuts open the plasmid at one site. This is because the DNA will be inserted there. We used Eco R1 and Hin dIII because they were on both of the human genes twice.
3. The DNA won’t be able to be inserted into the plasmid.
4. This process is important in everyday life because this prevents us from contracting illnesses and diseases that would harm us.
5. This process could be used to increase the amount of eggs a chicken produces. This way, we can breed less chickens, kill less chickens, and still get the same amount of eggs. Either that, or we could keep less chickens penned up and only have a few produce a large amount of eggs.

New Years Goals

New Years Goals

My new years goal for biology is concise. Continue doing what I have been doing in class, except be more in the class. What I mean by “in the class” is to pay attention, not only to what Mr. Orre is saying, but also pay attention to my surroundings. Are my classmates paying attention? What part of the book is he talking about right now? Does this part deserve attention or do I already know this thoroughly? If I can improve on these few things, then I will be able to achieve better understanding and a higher grade in this class.

My new years goal for golf is much different than biology. Paying attention to surroundings can matter, but most of the time I will try to zone out, paying attention to mostly my game and my game only. Other’s game I will give no attention towards, and if I stray from my goal I will try to redirect my course to where I want to be. Getting to the top 8, or being a traveler should be a stepping stone. My goal is to place in the top 4, where I feel I can be if i devote enough time and work to short game and my irons. Accuracy is key on Saratoga Country Club, and if I continue to scramble successfully and hit the greens, I can secure a spot in the top 4 for myself.

Unit 5 Reflection/ Notes

Unit 5 was the unit based off of… mutations. Problems with DNA, sometimes good, sometimes harmless, and sometimes detrimental. This unit went over point mutations, frameshift mutations, inversions, and translocations.

Point mutations are changes in one or two base pairs of DNA, and are small but common. These can be harmful if the protein changes a lot, but if the protein doesn’t really change they’re harmless. There are two main types of point mutations; substitution and frameshift mutations. In substitution, a nucleotide is substituted for another(ex. T is replaced by A by mistake). Frameshift mutations occur when a, insertion, where an extra base pair is added into the code, or b, deletion, where a base pair is left out of the code.

Some other mutations include inversion, where a piece of DNA breaks off and bonds in reverse order. Translation occurs when part of a chromosome breaks off and bonds with another chromosome.

Why do mutations matter to us though? First off, changes in DNA means changes in proteins, and some diseases are caused by the smallest of things, even a change of a single base. Mutations can be detrimental like said earlier, resulting in cancers or life threatening problems. Mutations can be very useful too. They could accidentally create new genetic variation for natural selection, causing resistances to certain things in nature.

Gene regulation is the reason why we don’t sprout hair on our eyes and ears on our chest. Cells don’t want to perform more than the necessary actions for the cell to function, so there is something called an operator that prevents the RNA polymerase from reading the gene. This is necessary, because without the operator the RNA polymerase would read the gene and keep making excess amounts of whatever results from the initiated process.

Unit 4 Notes

Unit 4 consisted of many steps and processes, all related to cells and development.  

• DNA fingerprinting- analyzes sections of DNA that have little to no known function but vary widely from one individual to another.     

• Gene theory- whenever there is an absent or faulty gene, it is replaced by a normal and working gene.
• The Human Genome Project- ongoing effort to analyze human DNA sequence.

Punnett squares are extremely useful  charts, made to draw possible phenotypes of an offspring based upon its parents’ genes.

Mendel’s work showed people the reason why we all look different, and why we all have different traits. His work taught us about dominance, recessiveness, and variation.

Two types of Inheritance: Autosomal and x-linked.

The Law of Segregation- Gene pairs for a trait separate when gametes are formed

Unit 3 Notes

Cells are called cells because a scientist, Robert Hooke, used an early compound microscope to look at a thin slice of cork. This cork showed many little chambers, almost as if they were “cells”. Hooke called these little chambers cells and they are known as cells to the present day. He used this microscope to look at other things, and found out that everything he looked at had “cells” as well.

The cell supports itself using different processes. Some of these processes create new organelles, some exterminate old, unproductive organelles, and some let things in and out of the cell.

Prokaryotes are cells with no nucleus, and lack many organelles compared to a eukaryote, which has all of those.

Unit 2 Notes

Photosynthesis is a process a plant cell undergoes to create ATP for the cell to work and for the plant to be supplied with energy. It converts energy from the sun and water from the roots in the soil to ATP using photosynthesis, which occurs in the chloroplast unique to plant cells.

Nucleus- nucleolus

Ribosome- small subunit(bottom), large subunite(top), builds proteins

Vesicle- membrane bound container

Rough ER- ribosome son the outside, “factory”

Golgi body- add stuff to proteins then “ships” the proteins

Cytoskeleton- structure

smooth ER- produces lipids, cholesterol, etc, detoxification

Mitochondria- produce atp, have own DNA

Vacuole- in plants, stores stuff

Cytosol- fluid that contains solutes, concentration gradient

Lysosome- Digestive enzymes, “suicide”

Centriole- important in positioning, initiate formation of spindle

Unit 1 Notes

Scientific method

1. Question/ problem
2. Collect information
3. Hypothesis
4. Experiment
5. Results/ data
6. Analysis/ conclusion(support/reject)

Qualitative- Descriptions

Quantitative- Numbers

Positive control- a group of data that will give predictable positive results

Negative control- A group of data lacking what is being tested so as to give expected negative results

Control- Something you use to compare your results to

Independent Variable- something that will change

Dependent Variable- something that will be measured

Constant- remains the same throughout experiment

Vocabulary

• Mutations- a change in the DNA code
• Mutagen- anything that causes a mutation
• Gene expression- process of a gene being used to produce a gene product or phenotype
• Gene regulation- mechanism used by cells to increase or decrease the expression of a gene
• Exons- sequences that are expressed
• Introns- sequences that are cut out
• Codominance- both traits are visible
• Incomplete dominance- Both partially show

Unit 5 Reflection

Unit 5 Reflection/ Notes

Unit 5 was the unit based off of… mutations. Problems with DNA, sometimes good, sometimes harmless, and sometimes detrimental. This unit went over point mutations, frameshift mutations, inversions, and translocations.

Point mutations are changes in one or two base pairs of DNA, and are small but common. These can be harmful if the protein changes a lot, but if the protein doesn’t really change they’re harmless. There are two main types of point mutations; substitution and frameshift mutations. In substitution, a nucleotide is substituted for another(ex. T is replaced by A by mistake). Frameshift mutations occur when a, insertion, where an extra base pair is added into the code, or b, deletion, where a base pair is left out of the code.

Some other mutations include inversion, where a piece of DNA breaks off and bonds in reverse order. Translation occurs when part of a chromosome breaks off and bonds with another chromosome.

Why do mutations matter to us though? First off, changes in DNA means changes in proteins, and some diseases are caused by the smallest of things, even a change of a single base. Mutations can be detrimental like said earlier, resulting in cancers or life threatening problems. Mutations can be very useful too. They could accidentally create new genetic variation for natural selection, causing resistances to certain things in nature.

Gene regulation is the reason why we don’t sprout hair on our eyes and ears on our chest. Cells don’t want to perform more than the necessary actions for the cell to function, so there is something called an operator that prevents the RNA polymerase from reading the gene. This is necessary, because without the operator the RNA polymerase would read the gene and keep making excess amounts of whatever results from the initiated process.

Human DNA Extraction Lab

Human DNA Extraction Lab

“How can DNA be separated from cheek cells to study it?” That was the question we stated our claim off of, which was homogenization, lysis, and precipitation. We swished gatorade around in our mouths to fill it with cheek cells, and after that we put salt, the enzyme for this, and dish soap. After this, we slowly poured alcohol into the test tube, and the DNA slowly diffused into the alcohol. This data supports our claim because it follows homogenization, lysis, precipitation and it allows us to study the DNA.

Our data agrees with the expected results because our steps, if followed correctly, were supposed to yield some DNA in the alcohol, which is what happened. There could have been errors with exact drop measurements, which could allow for too little DNA or the alcohol might not have separated from the soapy gatorade. There also could have been mistiming on how long we let the gatorade sit for, which might have limited the amount of DNA that came out. We could have solved these problems by using more precise measurements with drops, and by starting the timer exactly when we spit it out.

This lab was done to demonstrate the process used to collect DNA from a sample. From this lab I learned how to collect DNA from a sample, and this can help people in real life because of investigations. Based on my experience from this lab, I will be able to produce real DNA samples in the future, and DNA is so much more interesting to me now.