Lecture, Chapter 4 - Genes, genomes, and DNA

Today we finished covering chapter 3, on nucleic acids and proteins, and started covering chapter 4, on genes, genomes, and DNA (2nd stop on the 'roadmap': How DNA is organized in organisms, and how such organization affect its function).

We also had our first quiz, and I announced that tomorrow we are having another one, so we can keep with the average of 1 quiz/week.

Reminder: List of topics for the review paper is due next week. Each team (of 2 people) should make an appointment with me to go over the list, and pick the topic.

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Labs 01 and 02

Thursday Sep 10

Using the micropipette

On Thursday students got acquainted with their new best friend, the micropipette. We did a couple of exercises to make sure measurements were made accurately and that students learned how to use a combination of micropipettes to measure different values. The report was handed in at the end of the lab.

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Friday Sep 11

Restriction Enzyme Digestion (RED) and analysis of lambda DNA through gel electrophoresis

In this lab we used three different restriction enzymes EcoRI, PstI, and HindIII to digest (cleave) DNA from the lambda bacteriophage. As a DNA marker, or DNA "ladder", we used a sample of lambda DNA pre-digested with HindIII.

Students will measure the distance bands in the gel migrated and will infer the size of the different bands based on such information.

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