Something that could have gone better in our research was our, 2, attempts at a restriction digest. The restriction digest isn’t actually mentioned in our presentation, but it would be the next experiment. The first time round, our restriction digest went badly because our DNA was degraded. When we did our first quality control run, the results were not amazing, but we thought they were good enough. So, when we went back and redid our isolation and quality control (which is the picture we put in the poster) we made sure that the quality was excellent before moving forward. The second time our digest went wrong was, we believe, because the enzymes or gel we used were wonky.
Hi! Thanks for stopping by. Unfortunately, because of covid and the late start to this semester we did not gather our own soil samples. TA’s gathered all the soil samples and they were randomly given to us to use.
As far as I know, lytic and lysogenic life cycles are unique to bacteriophages, but I can’t say whether or not other micro organisms do not have life cycles that share similarities. But a lot of the mechanics such as how infection and reproduction works is due to phages being viruses that infect bacteria specifically.
We did not gather our own samples, TAs got all of the samples that were used this semester. But, yes location did have something to do with what type of phage it was. Depending on the environmental factors, the bacteria that grew there would influence the phage that was isolated.
Hey Ainsley,
we didn’t actually choose to test AliceinWonderLand. We were given a soil sample and asked to isolate a unique phage from it. As far as tampering with the environment, since at this point in time we are just trying to find, isolate, and describe our own phage, no purposeful changes were made. We didn’t know if the phage was going to be lytic or lysogenic ahead of time, that was part of what we wanted to discover.
Lytic refers to a type of lifestyle a phage may go through. In a lytic cycle phages infect a host cell and immediately, and rapidly, reproduce. Lytic phages destroy bacteria, so when looking at agar plates, if their is no bacteria surrounding the plaques that have formed, it is most likely a lytic phage.
Hi guys, nice presentation. I was confused as to a few parts of how your experiment was conducted, specifically what controls were there. Also, did you expect to find a new phage, or what did you guys expect to find from this research ?
Hey Ray,
As far as controls, we were not testing comparatively. We were isolating a completely new phage. The one ‘control’ we had was a DNA kilobase ladder for the quality control. It was to show the size of our phage DNA. Later on experiments were we would have/will attempted to find what cluster our phage belonged to would have more traditional controls. Hope this makes sense.
You state in the results that the DNA is high enough quality to perform more experiments, does this mean that it would be able to undergo the procedures that you mentioned in the “Future Direction” portion of your poster?
Yes. This is actually the second quality control we did, because our first one did not go as well and when we attempted to continue further, it did not turn out well. If DNA is does not pass the quality control (having both enough DNA and good enough DNA) in future experiments the DNA will be degraded and no clear results will appear.
What is something that went wrong within your research? How can whatever went wrong be better accounted for next time?
Something that could have gone better in our research was our, 2, attempts at a restriction digest. The restriction digest isn’t actually mentioned in our presentation, but it would be the next experiment. The first time round, our restriction digest went badly because our DNA was degraded. When we did our first quality control run, the results were not amazing, but we thought they were good enough. So, when we went back and redid our isolation and quality control (which is the picture we put in the poster) we made sure that the quality was excellent before moving forward. The second time our digest went wrong was, we believe, because the enzymes or gel we used were wonky.
What was your methodology for choosing where to gather your soil sample?
Hi! Thanks for stopping by. Unfortunately, because of covid and the late start to this semester we did not gather our own soil samples. TA’s gathered all the soil samples and they were randomly given to us to use.
Do you know if similar viral life cycles are found in viruses that affect other organisms, or are they unique to bacteriophages?
As far as I know, lytic and lysogenic life cycles are unique to bacteriophages, but I can’t say whether or not other micro organisms do not have life cycles that share similarities. But a lot of the mechanics such as how infection and reproduction works is due to phages being viruses that infect bacteria specifically.
Do you think where you got your dirt from played a role in what type of phage it could be?
We did not gather our own samples, TAs got all of the samples that were used this semester. But, yes location did have something to do with what type of phage it was. Depending on the environmental factors, the bacteria that grew there would influence the phage that was isolated.
Why did you choose to test the Alice in Wonderland phage? Did you tamper with the environment at all to help make it a lytic phage?
Hey Ainsley,
we didn’t actually choose to test AliceinWonderLand. We were given a soil sample and asked to isolate a unique phage from it. As far as tampering with the environment, since at this point in time we are just trying to find, isolate, and describe our own phage, no purposeful changes were made. We didn’t know if the phage was going to be lytic or lysogenic ahead of time, that was part of what we wanted to discover.
What’s the significance of this being a lytic phage?
Lytic refers to a type of lifestyle a phage may go through. In a lytic cycle phages infect a host cell and immediately, and rapidly, reproduce. Lytic phages destroy bacteria, so when looking at agar plates, if their is no bacteria surrounding the plaques that have formed, it is most likely a lytic phage.
Hi guys, nice presentation. I was confused as to a few parts of how your experiment was conducted, specifically what controls were there. Also, did you expect to find a new phage, or what did you guys expect to find from this research ?
Hey Ray,
As far as controls, we were not testing comparatively. We were isolating a completely new phage. The one ‘control’ we had was a DNA kilobase ladder for the quality control. It was to show the size of our phage DNA. Later on experiments were we would have/will attempted to find what cluster our phage belonged to would have more traditional controls. Hope this makes sense.
You state in the results that the DNA is high enough quality to perform more experiments, does this mean that it would be able to undergo the procedures that you mentioned in the “Future Direction” portion of your poster?
Yes. This is actually the second quality control we did, because our first one did not go as well and when we attempted to continue further, it did not turn out well. If DNA is does not pass the quality control (having both enough DNA and good enough DNA) in future experiments the DNA will be degraded and no clear results will appear.