Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi all,

I think I have finally boiled down what I want my science fair project to be this year but need some help. I am very passionate about skin health and thought I would do a project examining a mutant strand of yeast, which cannot repair its DNA after damage from UV light, and using different types and levels of sunscreen to stop the damage and then compare that to a human eukaryotic cell. I know the NER pathway (nucleotide excision repair) is responsible for fixing of the mutated DNA but I have been having some trouble trying to find somewhere where I can order a mutated strand without any of the NER genes. There is many of them RAD2, RAD14 and so on. Should I just focus on a strand with only one of these RAD genes being deleted? Or does anyone have an idea on where to order yeast with all NER genes removed? Thank you so much for your help!

It is good to try and keep as many things constant in your experiment as possible to ensure that your results are coming from your independent varible. Keeping this in mind, I would recommend focusing on a strand with only one of the RAD genes being deleted. This will also help to simplify the experiment so you can focus more on the effects of the sunscreen with UV damage. To your second question, most high schools have science catalogs from where they order science equipment. It may be helpful to check to see if your school has any of these catalogs. If this does not help I would recommend asking a science teacher, specially a biology teacher. Hope this helps!