BISC209/S12: Lab9: Difference between revisions

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==LAB 9: Data Analysis & Science Writing Workshop==
==Lab 9 LAB PRACTICAL==
We will learn how to use the RDB (ribosomal data base, a public data base provided by Michigan State University) to analyze your sequencing results. Lab to be held in a computer classroom (TBA). Make sure you have signed up for an account on the RDB and received a username and password before you come to lab. Link to the RDB:<BR>
Today you will have a lab practical exam designed to assess your mastery of basic tools, techniques, and theoretical information on which the field of microbiology is based.
[ https://rdp.cme.msu.edu/index.jsp]


Click on myRDP (orange sidebar on the left of the screen).
==Assignment==
 
In lecture on Monday April 9 you will learn how to use a public data base to analyze your sequencing results. Please bring your computer, if possible, to lecture that day and make sure you have downloaded any recommended software before you come to class. Dr. Klepac-Ceraj will provide information about downloading software in an announcement to Sakai.  
Click on "Not a user? Sign up!" and this will take you to a registration screen. Fill out the information required and then check your email.  You will be sent a password.  Go back to the myRDP site and login with your email and this password. It will then prompt you to change that password to something you can remember.
 
WRITE THIS DOWN!  Don't lose your password!<BR><BR>


In Lab 10 you will have a lab practical exam. See the Assignment section below for tips for how to prepare for this assessment.


In LAB 11 we will not have a formal lab. Instead, We will have another Science Writing & Presentation Workshop to prepare you for writing up your semester long investigation as an original research report (NOT AS A TRADITIONAL LAB REPORT!!) and to help you and your teammates (soil sampling groups) prepare to present a "virtual poster" in Lab 12.  At the end of the Data Analysis lab today, we will brainstorm some potential topics for you to choose for this oral presentation. Some suggestions and things to think about in choosing your topic are found in [[BISC209/S12: Lab12 | Lab12 ]]<br>
'''Graded Assignment''': Make separate figures and text for the antibiotic assay (if any of your site teammates indicated the presence of an antibiotic producer) and interactions assays. Use the Google doc table of the tests performed on the isolates from your soil community (include your teammates' isolates from the same sampling site for this assignment) to make a Table and write the results narrative for this table. You should include in the table: Gram stain, enrichment/selection medium, description of the colony morphology, description of the individual bacteria shape (cocci, bacilli, spirilla) and any useful descriptors ie., large, small, bullet shaped, in chains, etc., evidence of endospores (either endospore stain positive or visualization of empty areas in vegetative cells on Gram stain), & motility. Include metabolic tests such as nitrate reduction and mannitol fermentation. Leave out the interaction assay and the antibiotic producers test (if your site had a positive) in this table and make separate results figures from photographs of those plates and discuss those findings in separate sections in results. Work with ALL of your sampling sites' interaction assays on this results section and a photo of any positive antibiotic producers from your sampling site for that section of this draft results. If your site had no positive antibiotic producers, you can include this test and its negative results in your table with out a photo or separate section.<BR><BR>
.


==Assignment==
The results narrative for the table of tests performed on the isolates might start out, "In order to show structural and metabolic diversity as well as the potential for community behavior (co-operation and/or competition) among members of a soil community, nitrogen cycling bacteria & spore-forming bacteria were enriched and selected using media and protocols described in Materials and Methods. Once in pure culture a few soil community members of these groups and other interesting bacteria isolated on non-selective media were visualized using staining techniques for cell wall structure in a Gram stain, production of endospores with Shaeffer-Fulton endospore stain, the presence of capsules with a negative nigrosin stain, and flagella with a flagella stain. Additionally motility testing was performed on each isolate using soft agar deeps. Evidence for a role in the nitrogen cycle was assessed by________. (continue to describe any other testing you include in your table)......Table 1 shows the results of this testing." <BR>
Study for your '''Lab Practical'''. <BR><BR>
In Lab 10 you will have a LAB PRACTICAL, an exam that tests your ability to function as a microbiologist in the lab. There will be two main categories of assessment: testing practical skills such as your ability to perform crucial techniques (aseptic transfer, streaking for isolation, performing a Gram stain, micropipetting, etc.) and testing for your understanding of the biological basis behind the work that you've done this semester. For example: we might give you a starch plate flooded with iodine and ask you which, if any, of the bacteria forming colonies on that plate are capable of digesting starch, what metabolic enzyme is produced by these bacteria that allow that digestion and/or what is the ingredient in the medium that allows this evaluation? <BR><BR>


Wondering how to study? A lot of what we will evaluate you on, you already know how to do in your sleep, such as streaking for isolation using proper technique. You do not have to memorize the procedures in the wiki. You will have access to the directions that are printed in the wiki for performing techniques, such as Gram staining; however, you will ''not'' have access to how to read those tests or to the theoretical background information about those tests, such as the cell structural differences that the Gram stain uses as its differentiating principle. You should know that sort of information by studying the background information and protocols found in the Protocols section of the wiki for all the work that have you performed this semester. The protocols in the wiki that describe tests that you have not done  are NOT included in the practical. However, even if you didn't do or get a positive test from those tests performed on your isolates, you should know how to evaluate the tests we all set up, such as the MNM soft agar deeps, eg. how to recognize a positive vs. a negative.<BR><BR>
After this results section introduction, you can then analyze the findings in a narrative with the goal of using the evidence in the table to answer our experimental question, "is there evidence for diversity and functional co-operation and competition among the bacteria isolated from your soil community?"<BR>
<BR>


Don't forget that understanding of the molecular tools we used for identifying bacteria using their 16srRNA gene sequence. What we can learn from sequencing this gene is practical material. Your homework assignment on the theory behind that work should be a good study guide for that material as is all of the background information in the wiki in LABS 1-8 and in the general information page for our project in the main menu.<BR><BR>


'''Continue to wind down and complete your work on your isolates. Start discarding your cultures.'''
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Latest revision as of 06:39, 27 March 2012

Wellesley College-BISC 209 Microbiology -Spring 2012

Lab 9 LAB PRACTICAL

Today you will have a lab practical exam designed to assess your mastery of basic tools, techniques, and theoretical information on which the field of microbiology is based.

Assignment

In lecture on Monday April 9 you will learn how to use a public data base to analyze your sequencing results. Please bring your computer, if possible, to lecture that day and make sure you have downloaded any recommended software before you come to class. Dr. Klepac-Ceraj will provide information about downloading software in an announcement to Sakai.


Graded Assignment: Make separate figures and text for the antibiotic assay (if any of your site teammates indicated the presence of an antibiotic producer) and interactions assays. Use the Google doc table of the tests performed on the isolates from your soil community (include your teammates' isolates from the same sampling site for this assignment) to make a Table and write the results narrative for this table. You should include in the table: Gram stain, enrichment/selection medium, description of the colony morphology, description of the individual bacteria shape (cocci, bacilli, spirilla) and any useful descriptors ie., large, small, bullet shaped, in chains, etc., evidence of endospores (either endospore stain positive or visualization of empty areas in vegetative cells on Gram stain), & motility. Include metabolic tests such as nitrate reduction and mannitol fermentation. Leave out the interaction assay and the antibiotic producers test (if your site had a positive) in this table and make separate results figures from photographs of those plates and discuss those findings in separate sections in results. Work with ALL of your sampling sites' interaction assays on this results section and a photo of any positive antibiotic producers from your sampling site for that section of this draft results. If your site had no positive antibiotic producers, you can include this test and its negative results in your table with out a photo or separate section.

The results narrative for the table of tests performed on the isolates might start out, "In order to show structural and metabolic diversity as well as the potential for community behavior (co-operation and/or competition) among members of a soil community, nitrogen cycling bacteria & spore-forming bacteria were enriched and selected using media and protocols described in Materials and Methods. Once in pure culture a few soil community members of these groups and other interesting bacteria isolated on non-selective media were visualized using staining techniques for cell wall structure in a Gram stain, production of endospores with Shaeffer-Fulton endospore stain, the presence of capsules with a negative nigrosin stain, and flagella with a flagella stain. Additionally motility testing was performed on each isolate using soft agar deeps. Evidence for a role in the nitrogen cycle was assessed by________. (continue to describe any other testing you include in your table)......Table 1 shows the results of this testing."

After this results section introduction, you can then analyze the findings in a narrative with the goal of using the evidence in the table to answer our experimental question, "is there evidence for diversity and functional co-operation and competition among the bacteria isolated from your soil community?"