Blogs

The relationship between the distance from the reptiles to arthropods can be explained by other studies done in the past. An example of a phenomenon that explains this relationship is the luxury effect, which is strong particularly for lizards. Luxury effect displays links between urban biodiversity and sociology-economics (Litwhiler 2016). Studies have shown that factors such as climates and environmental factors play a key role when it comes to living organisms, and reptiles are no exception (Lee and Lim 2016). There are other factors that cause less arthropods, such as foot traffic. Since the first floor being the floor has the most traffic, it will have the least number of arthropods or signs of arthropods, as compared to the 4th floor that doesn’t have as much foot traffic. Since foot traffic causes a disturbance of other living organisms, there are less arthropods present. By critically observing and counting up the numbers of the arthropods and how they contain different physical features whether they be live or dead, we can observe and study how the relationship of the two affects each other.

We were interested in analyzing the water quality of the stream by the Sylvan residence halls. Research has shown that the levels and diversity of periphyton found in the water could be used as a way to analyze the overall health of the water. Periphyton is a broad term, consisting of algae, cyanobacteria, and other microscopic organisms living in the water. We created a method to collect samples of periphyton by placing three glass slides held together into the water. We placed these slides at three different locations in the stream, and collected samples after one week and after two weeks. We found that the levels of periphyton collected increased over the two weeks, and used the Shannon Index to quantify the diversity and abundance. We found that one of the three locations had a significantly higher number of total periphyton.

Two adenine deficient plates were then divided into four sections each. The first plate was labeled with HA0, HA1, HA2, and HB1, and had each quadrant’s corresponding yeast type lightly spread onto it. The second plate was labeled with HB1xHA0, HB1xHA1, HA1xHA2, and HB1xHA2, and had each quadrant’s corresponding yeast cross from the incubated plate lightly spread onto it. For the spreading process, a clean toothpick was used to drag a small amount of the required yeast in a straight line near the edge of the plate. Then a new toothpick was used to drag a single line up from the first line of yeast cells and then spread them in a zig zag fashion. The goal of this process was to spread the yeast cells to roughly one cell thickness. The two adenine deficient agar plates were then left to incubate at 30^oC for a week.

Welcome! In our experiment we examined the relationship between the number of arthropods on window sills in Morrill IV South and their distance from the reptile room, which is located on the secret fifth floor of the Morrill II building. Two different times, once last week and once this past week, we checked the window sills that look over the bridge connecting Morrill IV North to Morrill IV South on the first, second, third, and fourth floors. We were looking for live and dead bugs and also signs that they had been there, which include wings, webs, and cracks. We then used Google Earth Pro to measure the distance from each of these window sills to the reptile room. We used the luxury effect and foot traffic to explain our results. As you can see by our graphs, we generally found more of these bugs and signs on the upper floors, which are closer to the reptile room and have less foot traffic.

The purpose of this study is to examine how mutations are affected when different organisms, mutated or not mutated, are mated. Once that has been determined, tetrad analysis can then be used to determine linkage as well as the genotypes of given phenotypes. Yeast are an excellent candidate to test these with due to their simple phenotypes, small size, and quick growth. 

The findings of this lab were sound and gave a solid understanding of the passing of mutations to offspring as well as how to determine genotypes using tetrad analysis. The only thing that I would change about this lab is for a more conclusive tetrad cross to be constructed. Because of the certain dead cultures, it is impossible to tell whether the genes are linked or not. Presenting a complete tetrad cross would allow students to more accurately predict whether the genes in question are linked or not. 

As the results state, HA0 is the only haploid yeast cell that can grow without adenine, while HA1, HA2, and HB1 cannot grow without adenine. This shows that HA0 can synthesize its own adenine, while HA1, HA2, and HB1 have mutations which halt adenine production by the yeast cell, though it is unknown where these mutations are in the genome. 

Two adenine deficient plates were then divided into four sections each. The first plate was labeled with HA0, HA1, HA2, and HB1, and had each quadrant’s corresponding yeast type lightly spread onto it. The second plate was labeled with HB1xHA0, HB1xHA1, HA1xHA2, and HB1xHA2, and had each quadrant’s corresponding yeast cross from the incubated plate lightly spread onto it. For the spreading process, a clean toothpick was used to drag a small amount of the required yeast in a straight line near the edge of the plate. Then a new toothpick was used to drag a single line up from the first line of yeast cells and then spread them in a zig zag fashion. The goal of this process was to spread the yeast cells to roughly one cell thickness. The two adenine deficient agar plates were then left to incubate at 30oC for a week.

A clean adenine infused agar gel plate was then divided into four sections and labeled with the crosses that would be carried out. The quadrants were labeled HB1xHA0, HB1xHA1, HA1xHA2, and HB1xHA2. Small amounts of the two strains for each quadrant were mixed together without cross contamination and spread into small squares. The plate was then incubated at 30oC for a week. At the end of the week, all crosses had grown and displayed a cream-colored phenotype.