Thursday, March 10, 2016

DNA Extraction Number 2

This week in lab I performed another DNA extraction on my most recent web samples as well as the positive control web I got from ASU West. Earlier today I ran two tests to see how good my extraction was.
The first test I did is called a Nanodrop. This machine basically vaporizes a biological sample, shines a light through it, and using wave length absorbency can tell you the concentrations of biochemicals like proteins or nucleic acids or what have you. The concentrations of nucleic acids in my samples varied widely, which could have been a result of the varying amount of silk collected at each site. I cant really understand the rest of the data the Nanodrop gave me. There were graphs and stuff but it was incomprehensible to me. I'll have to learn about that later.


#
Sample ID
User name
Date and Time
Nucleic Acid
Unit
A260 (Abs)
A280 (Abs)
260/280
260/230
Sample Type
Factor
1
J1
biology
3/10/2016 11:22 AM
31.8
ng/µl
0.635
0.399
1.59
0.28
DNA
50.00
2
J2
biology
3/10/2016 11:37 AM
40.7
ng/µl
0.814
0.463
1.76
0.22
DNA
50.00
3
HW1
biology
3/10/2016 11:38 AM
4.8
ng/µl
0.095
0.078
1.22
-1.24
DNA
50.00
4
RSW1
biology
3/10/2016 11:39 AM
13.5
ng/µl
0.269
0.229
1.18
2.28
DNA
50.00
5
FSE1
biology
3/10/2016 11:40 AM
7.7
ng/µl
0.155
0.095
1.62
1.84
DNA
50.00
6
+C1
biology
3/10/2016 11:42 AM
19.6
ng/µl
0.392
0.301
1.30
0.68
DNA
50.00
7
-C1
biology
3/10/2016 11:43 AM
1.5
ng/µl
0.029
0.017
1.76
-0.13
DNA
50.00

I also ran a gel today to see if there are any visible bands of DNA in my sample. The gel looked lovely. The first two lanes were an extraction process that Josh developed being done on known widow webs, the next three were my extraction process on unknown webs, the last visible band was extracted from a web built by a known widow with my extraction process, the next lane was a negative control and the last lane was empty. The four lanes I did my extraction process on had clear bands of genomic DNA. Even if the concentrations varied widely, at least I know the DNA is there.


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