Summer SAVY, Session 1 Day 4, Molecular Genetics (5th-6th)
This morning, we started with transcription and translation, the so-called “central dogma” of biology. The information in the DNA sequence is transcribed into a sequence of nucleotides in RNA, which is translated into a sequence of amino acids in a protein. This is where the information in DNA is put into action. They practiced transcribing and translating portions of genes and learned how to use the genetic code. While this was happening, pairs of students practiced using the micro-pipettes, loading DNA into practice gels. They said the device did not look that small,l and I said it’s not the size of the device but the amount of liquid it can dispense, which was 10 microliters in our case. With practice, they all managed to get some of the DNA into the wells of the gel. It was then time to pour the agarose gels and load the DNA samples. We managed to get this done right before lunch, letting the gels run while we were eating.
After lunch, they examined the gels, made drawings, and determined if the individuals being tested had sickle cell disease. Here is one of our gels. The lane on the left is a positive control for someone with sickle cell, the next lane is a carrier, the third lane is someone without sickle cell, the next five are individuals being tested, and the last lane is the DNA marker, five pieces of DNA of known size. Ask your child to show you which individuals have sickle cell and which ones don’t. They should also be able to tell you which bands represent small pieces of DNA and which ones represent larger pieces. They should also be able to tell you how this technique separates DNA fragments by size.
Our next task was to go to the computer lab and begin researching the genetic disease/condition of their choosing. They had to figure out which disease to study and gather information. They may want to work on it a bit tonight, and they were told that they can print relevant images at home. We can’t print from the computer labs. Images are not required, but it’s great if they can bring some tomorrow to put on their poster. Tomorrow they will gather more information and work on the poster. At the end of the day, they will present their poster to the class and then bring it home. I am looking forward to their presentations (and we’ll work on presentation skills).
