Drafts

Overall, the concentration of citric acid was slightly higher than the concentration of phosphoric acid. This makes sense because citric acid is the only thing used to obtain the tart flavor for clear soda whereas phosphoric acid is used as a compliment with caramel to obtain the flavor for dark soda. The Ka’s found during this lab appear to be slightly larger for both citric acid and phosphoric acid when compared to the Ka’s found in our previous lab.

Eukaryotic organisms vary dramatically in the amount of DNA per cell, a quantity termed an organism’s C-value. Each cell of a fruit fly, for example, contains 35 times the amount of DNA found in a cell of the bacterium E. coli. In general, eukaryotic cells contain more DNA than prokaryotic cells do, but variation among eukaryotes in their C-values is huge. Human cells contain more than 10 times the amount of DNA found in Drosophila cells, whereas some salamander cells contain 20 times as much DNA as human cells. Clearly, these differences in C-value cannot be explained simply by differences in organismal complexity. So what is all the extra DNA in eukaryotic cells doing? This question has been termed the C-value paradox. We do not yet have a complete answer to the C-value paradox, but analysis of eukaryotic DNA sequences has revealed a complexity that is absent from prokaryotic DNA.

When T cells are activated, there are both stimulatory and inhibitory pathways that are activated. CD28 is the activating cytokine. It binds to CD80 and CD86 receptors on antigen-presenting cells. CTLA-4 is homologous to CD28. In fact, it binds CD80 and CD86 receptors with much greater avidity than CD28. Therefore, after some time, the T cell response will be inhibited. In immunotherapy, it has been shown by James P. Allison that blocking the CTLA-4 inhibitory mechanism leads to improved cancer treatment. James Allison won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for this discovery.

           For the work-up, the cooled contents of the rb flask were transferred into a centrifuge tube containing water (1.0 mL, 56.0 mmol). The layers were mixed thoroughly, allowed to resettle, and then the lower aqueous layer was removed into a beaker marked for waste. Saturated aqueous sodium bicarbonate (1.0 mL, 5.4 mmol) was added, the layers were mixed thoroughly the lower aqueous layer was removed into waste.This process was repeated. Saturated aqueous sodium chloride (1.0 mL, 7.9 mmol) was added, the layers were mixed thoroughly, and the lower aqueous layer was removed to waste. The organic layer was transferred into a vial, and five spheres of anhydrous CaCl2 were added to the mixture and swirled until no clumping occurred, then left to stand for about five minutes. The liquid was transferred to a dry, tared vial. The odor was noted, the final mass was measured and recorded,  and IR spectroscopy was performed. 

Fatty acid synthesis is mainly carried out in the cytoplasm of liver cells. It is not the reverse of fatty acid oxidation and involves multiple processes: (1) Acetyl-CoA transport, (2) malonyl-CoA formation, and (3) synthesis cycles. Acetyl-CoA is produced in the mitochondrial matrix and must be transported to the cytoplasm. Carbons are transported out to the cytoplasm indirectly as citrate, which is then recreated into acetyl-CoA once outside. The acetyl-CoA is then carboxylated to form malonyl-CoA by the enzyme acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC). Malonyl-CoA is the actual direct substrate of fatty acid synthesis. Synthesis is carried out by the enzyme fatty acid synthase (FAS), which acts as a dimer that makes two fatty acid chains at once. First the cysteine amino acid on FAS is primed, and then sequential cycles of reactions create the fatty acid. Each cycle adds two carbons from malonyl-CoA using the energy from NADPH. Seven cycles produce a 16-carbon chain, and all fatty acid chains produced by FAS are 16:0. Elongation and desaturation to create other fatty acids are carried out by additional enzymes. Double bonds are added by the enzyme desaturase; although, human enzymes cannot form double bonds past the tenth carbon. Fatty acids with double bonds past the tenth carbon are acquired solely through diet.

The first biome has a climate diagram similar to that of a tropical rainforest or savanna on Earth, although there are a few key differences. The temperature pattern throughout the year ranges from about 5℃ in the winter months to about 25℃ in the summer months. The precipitation pattern is high throughout the year but drops significantly during the summer months. In a tropical rainforest biome on Earth, there is high precipitation throughout the year but a period of low precipitation in the summer, much like Biome 1 on the mystery planet. Also like Biome 1, the temperature pattern in a tropical rainforest or savanna is relatively constant throughout the year, the values just differ greatly. Based on the temperature values as well as the precipitation pattern, I would expect Biome 1 to be located close to the equator of this planet, provided the planet is farther away from the Sun than Earth is in its solar system, since the temperature range is closer to what would be found in Earth’s more temperate zones. Due to the precipitation pattern, I would expect the vegetation to be similar to the vegetation in Earth’s tropical rainforest biome. However, due to the temperature pattern, I would expect the vegetation to be similar to Earth’s temperate shrubland biome. Therefore, I would expect this biome to have vegetation with lots of foliage due to the precipitation, but I would also expect the vegetation to be able to withstand colder temperatures. Perhaps these plants would have the hardiness of an evergreen tree but the leaves of tropical trees.

The goal of this experiment is to determine whether there is differential expression of the Bradi1g25180 gene between old versus young roots. Seeds were planted in gel and roots were grown for one week. New roots will be defined as the bottom half of the central axis root, while old roots will be defined as the top half of the central axis root. There are eight plants. There will be eight experiments; four of old roots and four of new roots. Each tube will contain either old or young roots from plants 1+2, 3+4, 5+6, or 7+8. The first step is to extract RNA. Once RNA is extracted and quantified using Nanodrop, RT-PCR will be performed. Primers that anneal to exons with an intron in between were made, such that the cDNA product is 261 b.p. long and the gDNA product is 537 b.p. long. This difference will allow us to see differential expression on a gel, because the more cDNA there is, the more RNA was present. High levels of RNA for a gene indicate high expression.

I just did the weekly preparation assignment about poster assessment. The poster that I looked at tried to find a link between google searches for west nile virus and if the virus was present in the area. It was a pretty cool idea, they had an algorithm to predict when and where the next west nile outbreak would be but when they incorporated google trends into the algorithm it became significantly more accurate. The researchers best guess as to why this could be is because if people here about the virus or there are a lot of mosquitoes present people search for the virus. The more people searching it in a specific area is usually fueled by a certain factor. The poster looked very nice overall, it had all of the components that a scientific poster requires. I was not a huge fan of the way that the poster flowed through. It appeared broken up by the two figures in the middle of the poster and the text was in two sections on either side that had little separation. This made it look like there were two massive blocks of text on either side of the poster, that kind of through off the flow when I read it.

The sequential analysis generated a chart of 11 playful, individual behaviors that were scored as bouts for a total of 7 minutes and 54 seconds. The catalog of behaviors shows the probability (out of 1) of one behavior occurring after another in sequence. With this information, a Kinematic Graph was formed which explained the relationship between the most frequent play behaviors that occured in sequence (Figure 2). The thickness of the arrows that connect different behaviors show how often the sequence occurs. This makes the interpretation of the female foal play behaviors easier to interpret to analyze the foal to foal communication.

The writing in this poster is good and focused but maybe a bit too concise. The writing is not in paragraph form and some additional info may be needed in some sections. I do not see and grammatical errors and the word count is certainly reduced well. The language is very scientific and makes sense for the topic being discussed. The poster is very informative but maybe a bit too packed with info. It draws you in but there is just so much going on that it's hard to get through all of it. All the data seems to be presented correctly and has all the necessary copyright information. The graphics also are nicely colored and are high resolution. This poster overall is very good, it's just a bit packed and is not in paragraph format.