The laboratory that I am currently working in focuses in the prevention of fungal growth in important economical plants such as rubber tree and teak. The majority of the students are testing different kind of bacteria that have previously show anti-fungal activity and their overall goal is to have greener crops/agriculture. It has been two weeks since I started working under the mentorship of Ajaan Sai and so far the experience has been exceptional.
During this week I poured plates, streaked five strains, extracted the DNA of those five strains and ran a gel with the objective to identified and unknown sample. Back at home I work with a bacterium call Sinorhizobium meliloti and the symbiotic relationship with alfalfa from a genetics perspective. In general in order to study the bacterial genes we have to be able to purify the DNA of the strain, so, a DNA extraction is a simple and quite common technique in our lab. The instant my lab partner brought a Quiagen Kit (big company for DNA processing, we use the same one back at California) my face lighted up, after some time of familiarizing with all the new information concerning fungi and other bacteria not related to my background, having a DNA prep felt like a piece of home.
What I find fascinating is that regardless of the research topic, genetics is the spoken language of all organisms, I guess that is the main reason why I adore this field. It does not matter what kingdom, species or phenotype is in question, genes are playing the main role in the central dogma. During my genetics course the textbook thoroughly explained this concept but I guess that actually observing it in a laboratory miles and miles away from my school, made me realize how similar yet so different research topics can be due to the universal genetic code. I really enjoy seeing how nature is connected in so many ways and how different science fields converge within a project.
I am excited and optimistic regarding the rest of the research project, my lab mate already send me the pdfs of his previous publications, so, I have some work to do!
Carolina Mendoza
During this week I poured plates, streaked five strains, extracted the DNA of those five strains and ran a gel with the objective to identified and unknown sample. Back at home I work with a bacterium call Sinorhizobium meliloti and the symbiotic relationship with alfalfa from a genetics perspective. In general in order to study the bacterial genes we have to be able to purify the DNA of the strain, so, a DNA extraction is a simple and quite common technique in our lab. The instant my lab partner brought a Quiagen Kit (big company for DNA processing, we use the same one back at California) my face lighted up, after some time of familiarizing with all the new information concerning fungi and other bacteria not related to my background, having a DNA prep felt like a piece of home.
What I find fascinating is that regardless of the research topic, genetics is the spoken language of all organisms, I guess that is the main reason why I adore this field. It does not matter what kingdom, species or phenotype is in question, genes are playing the main role in the central dogma. During my genetics course the textbook thoroughly explained this concept but I guess that actually observing it in a laboratory miles and miles away from my school, made me realize how similar yet so different research topics can be due to the universal genetic code. I really enjoy seeing how nature is connected in so many ways and how different science fields converge within a project.
I am excited and optimistic regarding the rest of the research project, my lab mate already send me the pdfs of his previous publications, so, I have some work to do!
Carolina Mendoza