Please read the following BIOTECH Project activity descriptions. Considering how much class or workshop time you have, please choose which activity or activities you are interested in:

• What is DNA?

  Kiwi DNA Extraction

  How do you purify DNA from cells? Students extract DNA from kiwifruit to learn about the chemical and physical properties of DNA. This activity provides a first-hand understanding of how DNA can be isolated for further analysis, such as DNA fingerprinting. Students also reinforce their understanding of cell structure and biological macromolecules. We use a kiwifruit protocol because it uses commonplace materials and requires little equipment. [45 minutes]

• Tools for examining DNA

  Agarose Gel Electrophoresis with Dyes

  What is electrophoresis? Students use agarose gel electrophoresis to determine the composition of different biological dyes or food coloring agents. This activity helps students learn how molecules can be separated and identified by electrophoresis. [90 minutes]

• Examining genetic differences

  DNA Fingerprinting

  How is DNA evidence prepared and analyzed in a crime case? Students perform agarose gel electrophoresis to analyze DNA samples from a mock crime scene. Based on DNA fingerprinting profiles that are simulated to represent the two suspects, the victim, and DNA from the crime scene, students determine which suspect likely committed the crime. This activity helps students understand how DNA variation in individuals can be analyzed in practical applications such as genetic testing and forensics. [120 minutes]

  Drosophila Eye Pigment Chromatography

  Many experiments examine DNA at the molecular level. By looking at the products of DNA, in this case the pigments that determine a fruit fly's eye color, students can examine the impact of changes in DNA (genetic mutations). Students make observations about the eye colors of different fruit fly mutants and then more closely examine the mutants' eye pigments by separating them using paper chromatography. Not only to students have the opportunity to make a connection between genetic changes and resulting phenotypes, but they utilize yet another method for separating molecules based on molecular characteristics (e.g. DNA extraction by separating nucleic acids from proteins, carbohydrates, and fats; agarose gel electrophoresis). [45 minutes, overnight incubation, 45 minutes]

• Manipulating DNA and genetic engineering (AP Biology Lab #6)

  Bacterial Transformation

  What is genetic engineering, and how is this technique used? Students perform a genetic engineering experiment using bacterial transformation to introduce a fluorescent gene into Escherichia coli. Students transform E. coli with a plasmid that contains the green fluorescent protein gene to produce bacteria that "glow in the dark". This activity helps students understand what genes do and how they can be manipulated by genetic engineering. [50 minutes, overnight incubation, 50 minutes]

  Restriction Enzyme Analysis

  How is DNA analyzed and manipulated using restriction enzymes? Students digest bacteria phage lambda DNA with different restriction enzymes and analyze the resulting DNA profiles. Students compare the DNA fragments with the known restriction map of bacteria phage lambda. This activity demonstrates how DNA sequences can be mapped and characterized, such as in the Human Genome Project and how DNA is cut and arranged during genetic engineering. [50 minutes, overnight incubation, 120 minutes]

• Products of DNA

  Muscle Protein Electrophoresis

  Almost all of the cells in your body have the exact same DNA, so how can all of the cells in your body look different? A cell must decide which DNA to use to make the proteins it needs to be that cell. For example, all muscle cells (skeletal, smooth, and cardiac) have both actin and myosin that help them contract, but the mechanism of contraction is different in different cells: cardiac and skeletal muscle use tropomyosin and smooth muscle doesn't. Since smooth muscle doesn't need tropomyosin to be able to contract, it doesn't make the tropomyosin protein. During this experiment, students will separate out the muscle proteins from cardiac, skeletal, and smooth muscle using protein gel electrophoresis. Students will compare the muscle proteins to actin, myosin, and tropomyosin protein controls and determine which proteins each muscle type makes.

  Drosophila Eye Pigment Chromatography

  Many experiments examine DNA at the molecular level. By looking at the products of DNA, in this case the pigments that determine a fruit fly's eye color, students can examine the impact of changes in DNA (genetic mutations). Students make observations about the eye colors of different fruit fly mutants and then more closely examine the mutants' eye pigments by separating them using paper chromatography. Not only to students have the opportunity to make a connection between genetic changes and resulting phenotypes, but they utilize yet another method for separating molecules based on molecular characteristics (e.g. DNA extraction by separating nucleic acids from proteins, carbohydrates, and fats; agarose gel electrophoresis). [45 minutes, overnight incubation, 45 minutes]

• Disease detection and prevention

  ELISA assay

  How can you detect a viral disease, such as AIDS? Students perform a diagnostic test, the ELISA assay, to examine the spread of a simulated viral epidemic in a class. The assay detects which individuals are infected, and students apply their knowledge of immunology to understand how the assay works at the molecular level. By analyzing the classroom data, students determine the original carriers of the virus and examine how transmitted diseases spread in a population. [60-90 minutes, depending on extent of discussion]

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  BIOTECH Project Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology The University of Arizona http://biotech.biology.arizona.edu