The End is Near......

This week we had our final classes of the semester. On Monday, we had a presentation by Jun a Post Doc in Dr. Moe’s lab he told us about quantitative PCR. We had an idea about how it works from the Salazaar paper that we read it talked about qPCR with a set of primers specific for the family Geodermatophilacea. After the presentation we had a few test to run. Milk agar plates were streaked these plates are used to test caseinase activity and should be graded in 2 wks. Also tested were oxidase and catalase which give almost instantaneous results. To test catalase we took a look of our isolates and placed it in a drop of 3% H2O2 if oxygen bubbles began to form then it was positive if no bubbles negative. To test oxidase we took a loopful of isolate and smeared it onto a filter paper made of cellulose. Then we added the oxidase reagent which was at 1% concentration to the smear if it turns dark purple to black it was positive. Light blue is the natural reaction between the paper and the reagent and is a negative test result. Interestingly about our results is that we had because of the variability within each genus for the oxidase test result that some of our isolates would be positive and some negative however all of our isolates were catalase positive but oxidase negative.
Wednesday was a discussion about what is going to be on the final and what is expected of us in our database/ excel sheet and our lab journals which are all due on the day of the final. After the discussion we had an end of the semester party with pizza and donuts.