Team:Cambridge/Experiments

Experiments

Details of the experiments carried out throughout the project are linked from this page. These experiments should also be linked to from the appropriate diary page.

Preliminary Exercise

Initial exercise during our 2 weeks crash course in synthetic biology with the aim of familiarising us with common laboratory methods of preparing and assembling DNA.

Main Project - 'Bactiridescence'

Amplification of Reflectin Genes from the Squid Genomic DNA - Part 1

Reflectin genes were amplified directly from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loligo Loligo] tissue. Tissue from the Loligo genus was commercially available from fishing bait suppliers and culinary wholesalers. Primers were designed from the nucleotide sequences of three reflectin proteins identified in L. pealei, and used in a PCR reaction upon L. vulgaris genomic DNA.

Amplification of Reflectin Genes from the Squid Genomic DNA - Part 2

Two new protocols for genomic DNA extraction were used in order to improve yield and purity of DNA. In addition to three sets of primers allowing for amplification of reflectin, an extra 'positive control' pair of primers was used in the PCR reaction.