We were doing DNA prep on some tissue samples that she had collected from her plant specimens. We got to use lots of fun equipment and chemicals, including chloroform. First of all, we had to crush up the samples. Do you seniors who were in biology remember Mr. Johnston's kiwi fruit lab? Anyways, in the kiwi lab, we just smacked the kiwis around in order to break the cell membranes, but this was much more complicated, and much more fun.
Our tissue samples were embryonic leaves that were something less than one square millimeter, so we had to use a drill press to crush them up. The press is small enough to fit on a lab bench, and it uses special, rounded bits made out of plastic. We put a single leaf from a plant in the bottom of a cuvette, and then ground it up with the press.
Following the addition of a few various solutions, and several sessions of mixing, centrifuging, and draining the samples, the DNA was put into a solution of TE buffer to keep it from degenerating. We should be doing PCR in the next few days so that we will have more copies of the DNA to work with.
The entire process took about three and a half hours. I expect that we will get faster in the future, especially since we will be making fewer mistakes.
After a rather wet (but not unpleasant) walk from the bus stop and some valuable time spent with a genetics textbook, I was ready to call it a day.
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