PCR REACTION IN ONE HOUR

Feb 23^rd

      Last experiment didn’t work very well with the species we used and/or the annealing temperature so this time we used three new species; ZAL 70, 71, 72. Mr. Adams and I reduced the water by a factor of 1.7 so that the concentration of the reaction remains the same. Instead of the regular 17.5 Microliters for a 25 Microliter reaction we made 14. 8. With this change we also increased the amount of MgCl₂ from 1.5 to 2.5 Microliters. In addition we made another row of regular water amounts so that we have a better idea of which conditions work best for the species.

      With practice, this time I put the two PCR reactions in an hour instead of the regular two. I am much faster with the lab equipment and putting together the experiment. I also know my way around fixing small mistakes such as Pipette usage or controlling amounts of Primers, Q-taq, dNTP’s, Buffer and water to get good results.

      With the remainder of my time in the lab I learned to Morphological way of identifying the species I work with in their molecular level. Mr. Adams introduced me to the shapes of Moths under the microscope and their morphology as a whole. The best way to identify the Species and place them in the right taxa is in fact through their reproductive system the shapes of the male genitalia helps place it in the right taxa; same thing with females.