Blog Post Week 3 10/14/16

Continuing from last week the DNA extraction, was performed by following a protocol that was made during the summer by another intern. One way that we can quantitatively see and confirm how much DNA was actually in the tubes and shown in the gels is by Nano dropping. This shows a couple of numbers that let us know exactly what is DNA and what is just junk. Following the Nano drop, we proceeded to do PCR. PCR is an amplifier for our DNA using primers that are specific to the pseudomonas species we are looking for. However, there were troubles with the PCR because some of the samples didn’t have the full 25 microliters that were needed for the PCR so we had to rerun PCR on all of the samples. The goal was for the ones that turn out positive from the DNA gel extraction, then we are to send the positives to perform DNA sequencing at Arizona State University. 

Gels running for electrophoresis