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Taas10
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PLEASE HELP URGENT

Post by Taas10 »

Hi,

Please answer some or all of the following questions:

1)How do I expose yeast to UV radiation?
2)Where do I get UV radiation?
3)Which type of yeast works best?
4)What would be a great experiment to show mutation?

PLEASE HELP ASAP :oops: :cry:
HannahNoel
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Re: PLEASE HELP URGENT

Post by HannahNoel »

It seems like you are interested in setting up some experiments to show the effects of UV radiation. A well documented effect of UV radiation is DNA damage. It is actually quite easy to set up experiments in which you expose yeast to UV and determine the extent of DNA damage. Under Project Ideas on Science Buddies we outline a project doing just this! (https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary)

In this particular project, the source of UV is the sun. This is an inexpensive and easy way to expose yeast to UV. However, if you have access to a UV box (a piece of equipment common to many labs) you could also use that -- although the amount of time you expose yeast to UV in a UV box should be reduced. Baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is commonly used as a model organism in research labs. I would recommend using this species of yeast. You could also order strains of this species that are deficient in DNA repair to study which repair pathways are important for repairing damage due to UV.

I hope this was helpful! Let me know if you have any more questions or if you want to discuss any ideas concerning what experiments you want to do.

Best,
Hannah
Taas10
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2016 6:28 am
Occupation: Student

Re: PLEASE HELP URGENT

Post by Taas10 »

HannahNoel wrote:It seems like you are interested in setting up some experiments to show the effects of UV radiation. A well documented effect of UV radiation is DNA damage. It is actually quite easy to set up experiments in which you expose yeast to UV and determine the extent of DNA damage. Under Project Ideas on Science Buddies we outline a project doing just this! (https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary)

In this particular project, the source of UV is the sun. This is an inexpensive and easy way to expose yeast to UV. However, if you have access to a UV box (a piece of equipment common to many labs) you could also use that -- although the amount of time you expose yeast to UV in a UV box should be reduced. Baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is commonly used as a model organism in research labs. I would recommend using this species of yeast. You could also order strains of this species that are deficient in DNA repair to study which repair pathways are important for repairing damage due to UV.

I hope this was helpful! Let me know if you have any more questions or if you want to discuss any ideas concerning what experiments you want to do.

Best,
Hannah


Hi Hannah,

Thank you so much for your reply, I was very concerned about this project.

I am interested in conducting experiments that show mutations in DNA. Exposing yeast to UV radiation was the only project I could find. If you have any other experiments about this topic in mind please let me know. Coming back to this yeast project you suggested where do think I could find "baker's yeast" and do you think readily available active dry yeast would work?

Your reply would be greatly appreciated. Please make it quick as I am tight on time with this project.

Thanks again.

Best,
Taas
HannahNoel
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Re: PLEASE HELP URGENT

Post by HannahNoel »

Hi Taas,

I'm sorry for my delayed response.

There is a kit that you can purchase with all of the necessary materials to carry out this experiment (http://www.carolina.com/yeast-genetics/ ... scibuddies).

Active dry yeast is actually a form of S. cerevisiae. It is essentially made up of live yeast cells that are surrounded by a thick layer of dead cells. However, I do not recommend using active dry yeast for your experiments because in theory this yeast should be "wild type". This means that all of the genes/proteins produced by this strain of yeast should function properly. If all of the proteins it produces, including proteins involved in DNA repair, function properly, it is unlikely you will see any effect from UV radiation.

I'm concerned that you say you are short on time. It will take roughly 2 - 4 weeks to complete this experiment.

As for other experiments concerning mutations in DNA -- that a pretty broad scope. What do you want to study about mutations?

Hannah
Taas10
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Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2016 6:28 am
Occupation: Student

Re: PLEASE HELP URGENT

Post by Taas10 »

HannahNoel wrote:Hi Taas,

I'm sorry for my delayed response.

There is a kit that you can purchase with all of the necessary materials to carry out this experiment (http://www.carolina.com/yeast-genetics/ ... scibuddies).

Active dry yeast is actually a form of S. cerevisiae. It is essentially made up of live yeast cells that are surrounded by a thick layer of dead cells. However, I do not recommend using active dry yeast for your experiments because in theory this yeast should be "wild type". This means that all of the genes/proteins produced by this strain of yeast should function properly. If all of the proteins it produces, including proteins involved in DNA repair, function properly, it is unlikely you will see any effect from UV radiation.

I'm concerned that you say you are short on time. It will take roughly 2 - 4 weeks to complete this experiment.

As for other experiments concerning mutations in DNA -- that a pretty broad scope. What do you want to study about mutations?

Hannah

Hey Hannah,

Thanks for explaining about the yeast and recommending the kit.

I am fine with using baker's yeast for the experiment. I am short on time for making a decision on what my science fair project I am going to do, if I do choose this experiment I am sure I will have time to conduct it.

I am in search for an experiment regarding "How" and "Why" mutations occur in DNA. But in my attempts of trying to find an experiment related to this, I found that with the materials I can afford and appliances I have, it is hard to do an experiment on this topic. But you have a lot more knowledge than me on this topic, so if you have any projects in mind please let me know.

Thanks for all your help,
Taas
HannahNoel
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Re: PLEASE HELP URGENT

Post by HannahNoel »

Hey Taas,

There is quite a bit known about how/why mutations occur. Mutations typically occur when DNA is being replicated or repaired after damage. Most of the time our cells can replicate and repair DNA without any error at all, however, this process doesn't always run perfectly. Because of this, there is a rate at which we can predict mutations will spontaneously occur. You can imagine that this rate of mutation would increase if cells some how had deficient proteins that are critical for DNA repair or if cells were kept in conditions that cause a lot of DNA damage. Scientists are still researching how DNA repair works. If you are interested, you can find scientific papers about this topic (or any other topic that interests you) by searching the database at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

All that being said, the yeast experiment we've been talking about is a classic experiment about DNA damage/repair. I've done it, I've taught it in labs. It's a good experiment that students learn a lot from. However, the kit I recommended is pretty expensive. I don't know if there's any cheaper way of doing it.

Have you tried checking out the project ideas we have on science buddies.org? If not, I highly recommend looking through some of the ideas we have (https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... deas.shtml).

Hannah
Taas10
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2016 6:28 am
Occupation: Student

Re: PLEASE HELP URGENT

Post by Taas10 »

HannahNoel wrote:Hey Taas,

There is quite a bit known about how/why mutations occur. Mutations typically occur when DNA is being replicated or repaired after damage. Most of the time our cells can replicate and repair DNA without any error at all, however, this process doesn't always run perfectly. Because of this, there is a rate at which we can predict mutations will spontaneously occur. You can imagine that this rate of mutation would increase if cells some how had deficient proteins that are critical for DNA repair or if cells were kept in conditions that cause a lot of DNA damage. Scientists are still researching how DNA repair works. If you are interested, you can find scientific papers about this topic (or any other topic that interests you) by searching the database at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

All that being said, the yeast experiment we've been talking about is a classic experiment about DNA damage/repair. I've done it, I've taught it in labs. It's a good experiment that students learn a lot from. However, the kit I recommended is pretty expensive. I don't know if there's any cheaper way of doing it.

Have you tried checking out the project ideas we have on science buddies.org? If not, I highly recommend looking through some of the ideas we have (https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... deas.shtml).

Hannah


Hey Hannah,

I did go though the database and the project ideas at science buddies.

I think that I will just go ahead with the yeast experiment, like you suggested. I was just wondering of different ways I could do it. Could I conduct this experiment with bacteria? What methods and materials would be different if I were to use bacteria?

Thx,
Taas
HannahNoel
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Re: PLEASE HELP URGENT

Post by HannahNoel »

Hi Taas,

It is possible to use bacteria. Check out our detailed project idea that uses bacteria (https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary). It's important to note that you'd need access to a lab to carry out this experiment.

Hannah
Taas10
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Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2016 6:28 am
Occupation: Student

Re: PLEASE HELP URGENT

Post by Taas10 »

HannahNoel wrote:Hi Taas,

It is possible to use bacteria. Check out our detailed project idea that uses bacteria (https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary). It's important to note that you'd need access to a lab to carry out this experiment.

Hannah
Hi Hannah,

I am sorry I am giving you so much trouble by asking all these questions.

I think that I have almost decided my project. I have a question about the UV radiation, my local lab does not have access to UV Radiation, so I was wondering if like the yeast experiment I could use the sun?

Best,
Taas
HannahNoel
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Re: PLEASE HELP URGENT

Post by HannahNoel »

Taas,

It's no trouble at all! You can definitely use the sun for UV radiation! In my first reply I included a link to a page that outlines the procedure and how long you should expose yeast to the sun for (these times are comparatively less than if you were using a UV source in a lab).

Hannah
Taas10
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2016 6:28 am
Occupation: Student

Re: PLEASE HELP URGENT

Post by Taas10 »

HannahNoel wrote:Taas,

It's no trouble at all! You can definitely use the sun for UV radiation! In my first reply I included a link to a page that outlines the procedure and how long you should expose yeast to the sun for (these times are comparatively less than if you were using a UV source in a lab).

Hannah
Hey Hannah,

Thank you so much for all your help and helping me decide my project :D

I am going to do the bacteria project using UV Radiation from the sun, if I a have any other questions I will let you know.

Thanks again,
Taas
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