S-STEM Scholar Logan Young's Blog

  Week Three Introduction     This week we innoculated several medias and performed biochemical characterization tests on Deinococcus xinjiangensis .  Methods     A gram stain is done on the D. xinjiangensis . They test gram -. The plates labeled last week are innoculated with their respective bacteria species. The tubes containing SIM media are innoculated by opening the tube and passing it over a flame. The smaller tube containing the bacteria is then swabbed. The needle is then dipped into the larger tube, which is passed over the flame again and closed. The methods of using UniProt and NCBI to detect the presence and absence of genes involved in chemotaxis/mechanotaxis is then scrutinized. It is discovered that the method we had been using was unreliable. Following this, two flasks of TGY are innoculated with D. xinjiangensis.  The following day, we examine the plates for growth and inoculate the citrate plates with D. xinjiangensis . A rough draft...

Introduction     This week in the lab was not very busy. We hoped to innoculate plates and perform characterization tests on Deinococcus xinjiangensis , but were unable to do so. Our group also began investigating whether or not certain proteins involved in mechanotaxis and chemotaxis were present in various Deinococcus  species.  Methods       28 plates were prepared. 10 contained TGY, two contained a comibination of starch and TGY, six contained urease, and 10 contained R2A. 500 ml of TGy was heated at 350 C and poured into the TGY plates. Another TGY flask of the same volume was heated at 355 C and poured. 2g/L of strach and TGY was used to make the starch plates, while the solution for the urease test consisted of 50mL of urease in 450mL of H20 and Agar after the latter solution was heated to 350 C. After the plates were poured they were placed in the refrigerator. Next a R2B broth was prepared. 0.378g of R2B powder was dissolved in 120 mL of DI wa...

  Introduction     This week was a busy one in the lab. Experiments were performed in an attempt to transform Deinococcus aquaticus  and give them chloramphenicol resistance. Competent D. aquaticus  were made, and I learned a lot about proteins.  Procedure     On Monday, I learned a lot about proteins, including the basic structure of amino acids and how the form of a protein determines its function. My lab mates also performed a Gibson assembly, attempting to combine the 7kb fragment and the cmr gene. On Tuesday, we examined the plates from Friday. Unfortunately, the only plates which showed signs of growth were the positive controls. In order to check whether or not the Gibson assembly was correct, we run a gel consisting of 30mL of TAE buffer and 0.3 grams of dyed agarose. with 5uL of the 7kb fragment and 16uL of the results of yesterday's Gibson assembly. In lane one is a 1kb ladder, in lane 2 is a blank, in lane 3 are the results of the Gibso...