Week 8 - October 4, 2022

 Tuesday October 1, 2022 

On Tuesday, Dr. Tuohy asked my partner and I to take some time and get familiar with restriction enzymes. I had heard the term before in the lab but I didn’t know what it meant or what it was for. After doing a little bit of research, I feel as if I have a basic understanding of the term. 

A restriction enzyme is a protein from bacteria that cleaves DNA sequences at a specific site and cuts the DNA only at that specific site, known as the restriction site or target sequence. The use of restriction enzymes is critical to laboratory methods such as genetic engineering. They can be isolated from bacterial cells and used to manipulate fragments of DNA. 

A bacterium uses a restriction enzyme to defend against bacterial viruses called bacteriophages, or phages. When a phage infects a bacterium, it inserts its DNA into the bacterial cell so that it might be replicated. The restriction enzyme prevents replication of the phage DNA by cutting it into many pieces.   


Thursday, November 3, 2022 

On Thursday, we made more media for the Microbiology department. There were two different medias to make: Simmons Citrate Slants and SIM Agar Tubes. There needed to be 900 mls of Simmons Citrate Slants and 600 mls of SIM Agar Tubes. I made 300 mls of the Simmons Citrate Slants.

Simmons Citrate Slants: 

  • Add 200 ml of DI Water to a 600 ml beaker

  • Add 9g of Simmons Citrate to the water

  • Stir on stirring hot plate

  • Slowly add in the other 100 ml of water

  • Heat slowly and make sure the solution does not boil

  • Pour or pipet 4 mls of media into each tube

  • Cover tube with metallic lid 

  • Label the test tube rack clearly 

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