Looking up to Endor

This week I was able to run some gels on the two cholla DNA extractions I had completed last week. Unfortunately, I did not see any bands after running electrophoresis. To make sure I was conducting the correct steps from the protocol, I did a DNA extraction on a trifolium sp. and was able to run electrophoresis on the sample. It turns out I was doing the protocol correctly, since there were bands in the gel! Here is the gel:

Polymorphic banding of Trifolium sp.

In two of the lanes from the wells, we are able to see two bright bands of DNA from the Trifolium sp.! It's exciting and I hope to see some bands in my next extraction from spines.

Finding Parts from Jakku

This week I completed another extraction with the ZR Plant/Seed DNA MiniPrep™ kit, but included an overnight incubation in room temperature and an extra 10 minutes in a man-mad bead beater. Josh was able to come up with a new way of bashing my beads by creating an awesome "home-made" bead beater here in the lab. Choosing between buying an actual bead beater or creating one, Josh's superior sagacity thought up of creating one. I was able to bash my beads without the numbness taking over my hands and the beating of the beads would be consistent. I saw improvement in the bashing of the cholla spines and the solution actually turned a bit yellow. This did not happen previously with my first extraction and I am hoping it was a serious improvement. I'll see if there are any bands next week after the samples undergo electrophoresis.