Week 8: DNA Extractions

Welcome back to my blog.

This week I have been focused on writing and starting to prepare my senior project presentation and my presentation for the lab. 

This week in the lab:

On Tuesday, my mentor and I went to the farm and collected flower samples from all of our T1 CRISPR mutants for DNA extraction (around 96 samples). We decided to use the simple DNA extraction method that was successful last week. After I ran the PCR I let it incubate in the machine overnight. Lastly, I began to screen some seeds from one of our plants that had successfully been edited for RFP (red fluorescent protein).

On Wednesday, I ran a gel for the PCR from Tuesday and analyzed results. The gel showed that there might be edits for some of the samples with the 23+59 guides, however the mutants with 21+77 guides did not look so promising. As such my mentor and I will only send a few samples from the mutants with the 23+59 guides for sequencing. Next I continued screening seeds under a microscope. After separating the seeds that had RFP and that did not have RFP I sterilized all the seeds and then spread them on a plate. Lastly I worked on analyzing last week’s DNA sequences that we got back and quantifying where/ what types of edits were made with Synthego Ice. 

On Friday, I did not go into the lab. Instead, I joined the lab meeting via zoom to watch my mentor’s presentation.