Team:University College London/LabBook/Week10

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== Monday 13.8.12 ==
== Monday 13.8.12 ==
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Aim - Check the results of the weekend culture of plates: At the end of last week we set up Expt 9.4, to assess whether poor activity of our antibiotics was a cause of the poor results we get after colony picking. We proposed that our antibiotics may be weak, allowing opportunistic colonies to grow on agar. Therefore we set up a series of agar plates with various antibiotics and controls, to see if we could prove that bacteria without resistance is capable of growing on antibiotic inoculated agar. If this is the case, we know our antibiotic is weak.
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'''Aim - Check the results of the weekend culture of plates:''' At the end of last week we set up Expt 9.4, to assess whether poor activity of our antibiotics was a cause of the poor results we get after colony picking. We proposed that our antibiotics may be weak, allowing opportunistic colonies to grow on agar. Therefore we set up a series of agar plates with various antibiotics and controls, to see if we could prove that bacteria without resistance is capable of growing on antibiotic inoculated agar. If this is the case, we know our antibiotic is weak.
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Revision as of 12:09, 24 August 2012

Contents

Tuesday 14.8.12

Aim - Repeat experiment 9.2: We think there might have been a confusion in preparing the samples for the PCR because we did not obtain any bands on the gel for irrE or Laccase.

Method

PCR Protocol

Step 1 - Setting up PCR tubes: Thaw reagents and add to PCR tubes in the proportions described in the table below

PCR Components Volume (ul)
5x Reaction Buffer 10
25mM MgCl2 4
10mM dNTPs 1
10uM Forward primer 5
10uM Reverse primer 5
DNA Polymerase 0.25
Nuclease Free Water 24.25
Template DNA 0.5
Total Volume 0.5

Step 2 - PCR program: Add PCR tubes to a thermocycler and run under the following conditions.

PCR conditions Temp (oC) Time (s)
Initial Denaturation (1 cycle) 95 30
Denaturation/Annealing/Extension (30 cycles) 95/55/72 10/25/120
Final Extension (1 cycle) 72 600
Hold 4


Step 1 - Setting up PCR tubes: The table below gives the identity of the primers used for each reaction. It indicates the samples that were set up for the repeat of Expt 9.2, as was done in the first attempt of Expt 9.2.

DNA Template Function Module Primer Pair Primer Primer Sequence
BBa_K729002 Laccase GeneDegradation LR1/LF1 LR1 gaatacggtctttttataccg
LF1 gaaataactatgcaacgtcg
REVLF2/LFTW0 REVLF2 gtttcttcctgcagcggccgctactagtagaatacggtctttttataccg
LFTW0 gtttcttcgaattcgcggccgcttctagaggaaataactatgcaacgtcg
No Template (Negative Control) N/A Degradation LR1/LF1LR1 gaatacggtctttttataccg
LF1 gaaataactatgcaacgtcg
BBa_K729001 irrESalt Tolerance STF1/ST2RSTF1 atggggccaaaagctaaagctgaagcc
ST2R tcactgtgcagcgtcctgcg
STF3/ST4R STF3 gtttcttcgaattcgcggccgcttctagagatggggccaaaagctaaagctgaagcc
ST4R gtttcttcctgcagcggccgctactagtatcactgtgcagcgtcctgcg
No Template (Negative Control) N/A Salt Tolerance STF1/STF2STF1 atggggccaaaagctaaagctgaagcc
ST2R tcactgtgcagcgtcctgcg


Results: The image below shows a 1% Agarose Gel of an Analytical Restriction Enzyme Digest for Expt 9.2, with a 1000bp ladder. Again we have not obtained any bands. In Lanes 1 and 3 we expected a product corresponding to the size of the irrE gene (1974bp) as indicated by A and C respectively. C would be marginally larger because it also contains the standard BioBrick prefix and suffix, but this different would not be noticeable on a gel. In Lane 2 and 4 we would expect products corresponding to the size of the Laccase gene (1554bp), as shown by B and D. Again we would expect D to be a slightly larger product because the primers were designed to include the prefix and suffix, but this is not a difference we would expect to detect. The strong patches of white demonstrate to us that our DNA template is at a high concentration, and should be diluted before we attempt any repeats. The lack of any products suggest we need to reconsider the protocol. Revising the annealing temperature or designing new primers will have to be considered.

Conclusion: We will revise the protocol to see if we can detect any bands.

Wednesday 15.08.12

Aim - Repeat the PCR again to optimise results: As an improvement we are using: - Phusion polymerase - Diluting the irrE DNA 10-fold, due to the excessive dose on DNA shown on the gel from yesterday. - Changing the annealing temperature from 55C to 57C

Method

PCR Protocol

Step 1 - Setting up PCR tubes: Thaw reagents and add to PCR tubes in the proportions described in the table below

PCR Components Volume (ul)
5x Reaction Buffer 10
25mM MgCl2 4
10mM dNTPs 1
10uM Forward primer 5
10uM Reverse primer 5
DNA Polymerase 0.25
Nuclease Free Water 24.25
Template DNA 0.5
Total Volume 0.5

Step 2 - PCR program: Add PCR tubes to a thermocycler and run under the following conditions.

PCR conditions Temp (oC) Time (s)
Initial Denaturation (1 cycle) 95 30
Denaturation/Annealing/Extension (30 cycles) 95/55/72 10/25/120
Final Extension (1 cycle) 72 600
Hold 4


Step 1 - Setting up PCR tubes: The polymerase used was Phusion, and we had two template DNAs – irrE and Laccase.

DNA Template Function Module Primer Pair Primer Primer Sequence
BBa_K729002 Laccase GeneDegradation LR1/LF1 LR1 gaatacggtctttttataccg
LF1 gaaataactatgcaacgtcg
REVLF2/LFTW0 REVLF2 gtttcttcctgcagcggccgctactagtagaatacggtctttttataccg
LFTW0 gtttcttcgaattcgcggccgcttctagaggaaataactatgcaacgtcg
No Template (Negative Control) N/A Degradation LR1/LF1LR1 gaatacggtctttttataccg
LF1 gaaataactatgcaacgtcg
BBa_K729001 irrESalt Tolerance STF1/ST2RSTF1 atggggccaaaagctaaagctgaagcc
ST2R tcactgtgcagcgtcctgcg
STF3/ST4R STF3 gtttcttcgaattcgcggccgcttctagagatggggccaaaagctaaagctgaagcc
ST4R gtttcttcctgcagcggccgctactagtatcactgtgcagcgtcctgcg
No Template (Negative Control) N/A Salt Tolerance STF1/STF2STF1 atggggccaaaagctaaagctgaagcc
ST2R tcactgtgcagcgtcctgcg


Step 2 – PCR Program: An annealing temperature of 57oC was used instead of the standard 55oC.

Results: The image below shows a 1% Agarose Gel of an Analytical Restriction Enzyme Digest for Expt 9.2, with a 1000bp ladder. Again we have not obtained any bands. The reason for this are unclear.


Monday 13.8.12

Aim - Check the results of the weekend culture of plates: At the end of last week we set up Expt 9.4, to assess whether poor activity of our antibiotics was a cause of the poor results we get after colony picking. We proposed that our antibiotics may be weak, allowing opportunistic colonies to grow on agar. Therefore we set up a series of agar plates with various antibiotics and controls, to see if we could prove that bacteria without resistance is capable of growing on antibiotic inoculated agar. If this is the case, we know our antibiotic is weak.

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