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 too many to count white/transparent white/transparent - pGLO LB/amp N/A N/A N/A + pGLO LB/amp 9 white/transparent white/transparent + pGLO LB/amp/ara 7 white/transparent green glow

2.	What two new traits do your transformed bacteria have?
	The transformed bacteria that contained the special pGLO plasmid had two different new traits. The first new trait is the ampicillin antibiotic, as a result, only the bacteria with the pGLO plasmid will survive in ampicillin. The second new trait is the fluorescent glow that comes from the jellyfish gene and allows the bacteria to glow under UV light.
3.	Estimate how many bacteria were in the 100 uL of bacteria that you spread on each plate. Explain your logic.
	In about the 100 uL of bacteria, there was only about one a fraction of one colony of bacteria, but after the bacteria was plated and grew multiple colonies grew from just a fraction of a colony.
4.	What is the role of arabinose in the plates?
	The role of arabinose in the plates is to trigger the GFP in the pGLO plasmid so that the bacteria containing pGLO will glow under UV light.
5.	List and briefly explain three current uses for GFP (green fluorescent protein) in research or applied science.
	GFP can be used as a visual tag for the expression of other genes or other visualization of cell structures. In addition, it can be used to observe small organisms and track viruses. Finally studying protein to protein interactions can be performed using GFP.
6.	Give an example of another application of genetic engineering. One application of genetic engineering, and arguably the most important, is using bacteria to mass produce vaccines and antibiotics.

Candy Electrophoresis Lab

When we analyzed the results of our gel we found a few oddities in the results. First, the blue reference dye moved the shortest distance and the band was the largest of the colors. In addition, the purple dye was a different color than any of the reference dyes but traveled about the same distance as most of the dyes. Furthermore, the yellow dye for both the reference dye and the candy dye traveled the furthest, farther than any other color dye. The structure of dye that would most likely migrate similarly to the dyes that we examined would probably be Fast Green FCF because one side of the structure is negatively charged so it will move toward the positively charged cathode. Many dog food manufacturers put food coloring in dog food to make dog food look more appealing to dog owners, but this can cause problems with the dog as food coloring can contain bad chemicals.

In our daily lives, there are many foods that have artificial food colorings which can be bad for your health. For example, hot Cheetos, instant noodles, candy, and even cereal can contain artificial food colorings to make the food seem more appealing but at the same time more unhealthy. While we were doing our experiments there were two factors that could control the distance that the colored dye solutions migrated: was the amount of colorants in the dye and the size of the dye. The force that helps move the dyes through the gels is the electric current that was run through the electrophoresis gel.

On the other hand, the component that helped separate the food were the fibers in the electrophoresis gel as it would be harder for the larger molecules to travel through the gel. For example, if there were several DNA molecules with the molecular weights of 600, 1000, 2000, and 5000 daltons, the heaviest, or the 5000 dalton molecule, would move the shortest, and the smallest, or the 600 dalton molecule, would move the farthest.

New Years Goals

     The first New Years goal that I will achieve is for this class and it deals with my growth and development. In this semester I want to really understand the subject of each unit and take it to the next level, not only learning the material but applying it into the real world. In order for this to happen, I really have to get a good understanding of the subject by taking in the things I learned from the vodcasts and doing labs to really strengthen my knowledge so that I can apply what I have learned into the real world. In addition, the unit reflections will come handy as I can record my understanding of the unit and apply the subject, and as a result, I get to take more away from the unit and overall the biology semester.

     The second goal that I will achieve is outside of school and deals with the swimming, a sport that I do competitively. In order for me to become a better swimmer, I need to set hard yet attainable goals. My goal by the end of the semester and continuing into summer is to attain at least one far western qualification time if not two or three. The main way I will attain this goal is to not only try to attend every swim practice but also to work hard in every practice and give my very best. In addition to water exercise, I have to work hard out of the water too, building up strength so that I have the tools to attain my goals. Overall, although difficult, my goals will help me improve not only in the subject but in being a better person as well.