Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My partner and I are planning to make a project based on DNA yeast extraction and how ultraviolet rays effect the growth of yeast colonies and how much damage it will cause to their DNA, is there another way to determine DNA damage other than electrophoresis?

Hi luag545,

It sounds like you are interested in something like this project: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary

If you read the procedure for the project, you are able to determine DNA damage by looking at the growth (or the lack of growth) of the yeast cells. This project involves growing the yeast on petri dishes and counting the colonies. No electrophoresis required!

Take a look, and please post again (in this same thread) if you have more questions.

Heather

How can we determine the amount of yeast DNA damage?

Hi luag545,

Without doing DNA sequencing, you will not really be able to determine exactly how much of the DNA in each cell is damaged. Instead, you will be calculating the percentage of yeast cells that acquire lethal mutations from the UV light. Since you will be looking at a percentage of cells that die from UV, you can infer that the percentage of cells affected is similar to the percentage of DNA damaged.

I hope that helps. Let me know if you still have questions.

Heather