DNA Technology Webquest Names:
Gel Electrophoresis
http://gslc.genetics.utah.edu/units/biotech/gel “Click forward” until you find the answers.
1. When do scientists use gel electrophoresis?
2. What is the gel?
3. What is “electrophoresis”?
4. Which will move faster: short or long strands?
5. What makes the DNA visible?
6. What is “Step 1”?
7. What is agarose made from?
8. What is the buffer?
9. What do you do with the flask?
10. What is placed in the gel?
11. What is “Step 2”?
12. What two things do you put in the electrophoresis box?
13. What is “Step 3”?
14. How do you transfer the DNA sample?
15. What is the DNA size standard?
16. What is “Step 4”?
17. What is the charge on the black end? What is the charge on the red end?
18. What is the proof that the current is running?
19. What is “Step 5”?
20. What is the stain?
21. Can you see single strands of DNA?
22. What kind of light is used to make the DNA show up?
23. Estimate the band length for the three samples.
Cloning – The Basics
http://gslc.genetics.utah.edu/units/cloning/whatiscloning/
1. is the creation of an organism that is an exact genetic copy of another.
2. You might not believe it, but there are human clones among us right now. They weren't made in a lab, though: they're , created naturally.
3. is the relatively low-tech version of cloning. As the name suggests, this technology mimics the natural process of creating identical twins.
4. Artificial embryo twinning uses the same approach, but it occurs in a instead of in the mother's body.
5. Somatic cell nuclear transfer was the method used to create .
6. A is any cell in the body other than the two types of reproductive cells, sperm and egg.
7. It's the differences in our that make each of us unique.
8. To make Dolly, researchers isolated a from an adult female sheep. Next, they the from that cell to an egg cell from which the nucleus had been removed. After a couple of chemical tweaks, the egg cell, with its new nucleus, was behaving just like a freshly fertilized . It developed into an , which was implanted into a and carried to term.
9. (be specific! I need the name of the mammal!) was the first ever mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell.
10. Play the natural reproduction movie for this question: Because the offspring contains a combination of the two sets of parent’s chromosomes, it is not genetically identical to either parent but is, instead, .
11. Play the somatic cell nuclear transfer movie for this question: The somatic cell is in a media that causes it to as an udder cell.
12. An egg cell is from a different animal. The egg cell’sis removed.
13. The egg cell and the somatic cell are using an .
14. Go to this web site and follow the instructions! http://gslc.genetics.utah.edu/units/cloning/clickandclone/ List all 6 steps in the “click and clone” procedures.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
15. What color was the cloned mouse?
16. In the real mouse cloning experiment, what was the name of the first born survivor?
What is Genetic Engineering?
www.sln.org/pieces/davis
1. Go to the Students On –line page titled “What is Genetic Engineering?
2. Read through and play the Flash movie.
Q1. What is genetic engineering in your own words?
Q2. Why do you think genetic engineering is also called “recombinant gene technology”?
Q3. What steps / techniques are involved in genetic engineering? Draw a flow diagram to show the steps needed.
Q4. What does the “donor” provide?
Q5. What is a “clone”?
To be of any real use, genetic engineering must allow us to select the gene we want in one organism, cut it out and place it in another organism. There we will want it to produce lots of copies of itself and maybe even a fully functioning protein product.
How do we go about selecting an area of DNA or a gene we want and removing it from the donor organism?
3. Select “Genomic Library” and read “Searching for a needle in a haystack”
Q6. What do we use to chop up the DNA?
Q7. Where are these enzymes made naturally?
Q8. They only cut at specific base sequences. What are these called and provide an example of one?
4. Play the Flash movies Blunt and Sticky ends.
Q9. What is the advantage of sticky ended DNA over Blunt ended DNA?
Q10. What is the crocodile in the model supposed to represent?
5. Go back to the main menu and select “cDNA Library”.
Q11. When would you search for your gene using a cDNA library?
Q12. Why does it require reverse transcriptase enzymes?
Q13. What sort of organisms naturally make reverse transcriptase enzyme and why can they do this?
Q14. What is the main advantage of using a cDNA library as opposed to a Genomic Library to find the gene you want?
6. Select “Finding the piece you want” at the bottom of the page or “Identify” from the Students On line page.
Q15. What method is used to separate gene fragments according to size and how does it work?
Q16. In which 2 ways can we identify the gel band that contains the required gene fragment?
Q17. How can we make lots of copies of the gene fragment when we have found it? Can you draw a diagram to summarise this process.
7. Select Vector at the bottom of the page or “Vector Insertion ”from the Students On line home page.
Q18. What is a Vector ?
Q19. What is a plasmid and what do they normally carry?
8. Select “put the plasmids into another Vector” at the bottom of the page or choose “Vector Cloning” from the Students Online menu.
Q20. What is a “gene marker”?
Q21. How are bacteria persuaded to take up the plasmids?
Play the Flash movie.
Q22. How can we tell which bacteria have taken up a plasmid?
Q23. Which colonies on the master plate contain plasmids?
Q24.Which colonies on the master plate contain recombinant plasmids?
9. Select “Inserting genes into multicellular living organisms” at the bottom of the page or “Organism expression” on Students online menu.
Q25. Bacteria containing transferred genes can now be grown in industrial fermenters to produce lots of the genes protein product.
What sort of products might this process produce?
Q26. Why can’t we produce all proteins in the fermenters using bacteria?