Week 4. Semester 2. Some DNA!!

As you may recall from last week, my extraction was finished but I was unable to determine whether I had DNA before submitting my post.

The following was done Friday morning last week:

Upon retrieving the DNA samples suspended in TE buffer from the refrigerator, two agar gels were prepared with 50 mL of 1x TAE buffer and .450 g of agarose. Once cooled to 59◦C, 4µL of Cyber Green were added to the beaker immediately before pouring into gel molds. A cardboard box was used to cover the gels and protect the Cyber Green because it decays when exposed to light and heat.

Once the gels were set, 2µL of Loading Dye were used in each well in the gels and 4µL of DNA sample loaded accordingly. 1x TAE buffer was added to cover the gels. The gels were electrophoresed for only 10 min, due to time constraints, and very little DNA was visible. Then Matt Haberkorn kindly offered to run them again and did so for approximately another 25 min. DNA run further and very faint banding was present.

However little, having some DNA in my first independent extraction feels like a great success!!

The remainder of the week I will be researching for possible ways to add cellulase to my protocol in hopes of increasing the yield of DNA per sample.

 Faint but visible DNA banding from practice extraction