Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Dear Science Buddies,
In a research project such as your "How Much DNA Can You Pack Into a Cell?", how do you decide a control? I know how to find controls in experiments but I need a control for this research project. Also, if you know a lot about this project can you please respond to my earlier posts?
Thanks!
Link for project: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p013.shtml

Hello,
From what I gathered reviewing your project it does not seem that you need a control in the sense you may be thinking. My suggestion would be to find one species to use as comparison with others. This can be your baseline. Then determine the size of the genome as well as the nucleus size using the database referred to in the project. Then look at other species that have both larger and smaller nucleus sizes and find out the size of their genome. See if you can determine a trend.

Hope this helps!
Katie