Alu PCR Lab
Overview
For this lab, we tried to determine the frequency of the alu insert among our class. The alu insert is a genome which occurs within the DNA sequence of both humans and primates sometimes. It is measured whether or not you have it with plus signs and minus signs. If neither of your parents had the alu gene, then you would be given a - -. If one of your parents had the alu gene and passed it down to you, you would be given a + -. If both of your parents had the alu gene and they both passed it down to you, you would be given a + +.
Me, Tyler and Nolan all worked together in a group for this project. In this lab, there were many sets of steps we had to follow in order for it to work correctly:
Me, Tyler and Nolan all worked together in a group for this project. In this lab, there were many sets of steps we had to follow in order for it to work correctly:
DNA Preparation
PCR
Gel
|
Materials
|
|
My Result
My personal result was - -, meaning neither of my parents had the alu gene. Below, you can see my entire group's results in a picture that was taken. In the picture, my DNA was in the 3rd slot from the right. Sorry for the poor quality, but it's the best I could do!
Peaks and Pits
My favorite part of this lab, or in other words, the peak of this lab for me would have to be the results. It felt good to know that all that work we put in had yielded a result in the end.
With all due respect, I believe that this project was mostly just practice with our micropipettes rather than anything else. The reason I say that this is because we didn't get to do much in this lab besides pipetting (and occasionally using the centrifuge). Because of this, in my opinion, I thought that this lab was unneeded, since we were given micropipette and centrifuge practice before the lab. Ms. Flasher was the one who did other things such as putting our solutions on the heat block and in the thermal cycler. We weren't told much of anything about those processes, which I had wished we were. Hopefully in the future we will be doing more interactive things. These moments were the pits of this lab for me.