Notes Survival of the Sickest Chapter 6 / PGLO Lab

• 18th century - Edward Jenner  discovers how vaccines work b/c he notices milkmaids who get cowpox don't get small pox --> infects teens with cowpox and they don't get small pox as well 
• all humans start as one cell - less than 3% of our DNA is used to create/build cells, the rest are useless 
• useless/junk DNA isn't used to make proteins, but does cause evolution, mostly b/c of viruses
• evolution caused in part by adapting to viruses/bacteria
• genetic changes b/c errors when DNA goes from parent --> daughter cell
• other mutations can be caused by radiation
• antigenic drift- when a mutation occurs in the DNA of a virus
• antigenic shift- when a mutation acquires new genes from a related strain
• mutations = random, occur during reproduction & --> natural selection
• Jean-Baptise Lamarck- theory of inherited acquired traits
• Barbara McClintock- geneticist,"jumping gene" intentional mutations in DNA to respond to unusual events
• genes jump when under stress
• antibodies = against specific viruses and bacteria and once you have them, you always do (why vaccines work)
• retroviruses- made of RNA, turn themselves from RNA into DNA and "rewrite" the DNA, off spring inherit the retrovirus through their parents' DNA
• if the virus does't hurt,  becomes a part of the gene pool (HERVs)

Class Today:

Today in class we began our pGLO lab. We created +pGLO and -pGLO (+ having plasmid). After getting the plasmid inside the pGLO using a heat shock, we put broth into each in order to feed the bacteria. We then put +pGLO into two petri plates, one with broth and ampicillin and the other with broth, ampicillin and ara (a type of sugar). Next we put -pGLO into two petri plates as well, one with only broth and one with broth and ampicillin. We predicted that +pGLO with amp and LB would grow, because the plasmid is resistant to the amp, and it might glow. We predicted the same for +pGLO with LB, amp and ara. For -pGLO with LB and amp we predicted that it would neither grow nor glow because the ampicillin would kill of the bacteria. And for -pGLO with just LB we predicted that it would grow but not glow.