Aseptic Technique
The principles of the aseptic technique are easy to understand, however, they are invaluable if a proper procedure is to be executed in such a laboratory setting. Primarily, to understand its importance, it must be understood what is aseptic technique. In essence, aseptic technique is the collection of procedures and steps performed to ensure both the cleanliness of the laboratory setting, and more importantly, the purity of the components used; that is to say, to ensure that no unknown contaminants such as bacteria or cells can compromise the procedures of the experiment (examples of such techniques include wearing the proper personal protective equipment, cleaning important surfaces with ethanol, and pipetting liquids in …show more content…
These considerations stem form the actual particle an individual is attempting to grow or culture. Primarily, it must be considered if the component trying to be cultured is a prokaryotic or a eukaryotic cell, as the two require notably different conditions in order to develop. The most notable difference between the two requirements is that most eukaryotic cells require oxygen in their environments in order to survive, wherein prokaryotes can survive in environments with little to no oxygen and can develop with only a small assortment of nutrients. Therefore, lines can already be drawn as to what media should be used for which type of cell, but in order to determine this it must first be determined what are the different types of media. Generally, the main types of media that will be discussed are Agar media and Broth media: the basic difference between the two is that Agar media is solid in state, thus meaning it is invasive (or does not allow oxygen to enter the environment), and that Broth media is liquid in state, which is a complete opposite of the Agar media (meaning it does allow oxygen to enter the environments). Considering this information, the conclusion can be drawn that eukaryotic cells will most likely grow in Broth media, due to the presence of oxygen, and prokaryotes will most likely grow in either …show more content…
Spencer’s entire project, revolves around the use of a transposon library. In essence, a transposon library consists of a collection of catalogued and labeled strains of a certain molecule or cell, in our case Francisella novicida, which inherently lack a certain component, most usually a gene or certain type of component. These strains become known as mutants and are catalogued in one of these transposon libraries, clearly showing which gene or component the strain is lacking. This is highly imperative for the project and experiment being conducted because the general goal of this project is to identify an enzymatic pathway that can lead to the production of a particular glycolipid, which will result in the enhanced production of NKT cells; in order to determine what enzymatic pathway leads to the eventual enhanced production of NKT cells, we must determine this by finding which enzymes contribute to this over-production, and the best way to find a component that is incorporated into a reaction is to remove that component and observe if the reaction still occurs. Therefore, the use of a library that contains a list of Francisella novicida mutants that lack one specific enzyme (or protein) would prove invaluable to use, as it can be used to determine with significant accuracy which enzymes are a requirement for this enzymatic pathway. Of course, cells are infinitely complex, and as such, they contain and infinitely
The principles of the aseptic technique are easy to understand, however, they are invaluable if a proper procedure is to be executed in such a laboratory setting. Primarily, to understand its importance, it must be understood what is aseptic technique. In essence, aseptic technique is the collection of procedures and steps performed to ensure both the cleanliness of the laboratory setting, and more importantly, the purity of the components used; that is to say, to ensure that no unknown contaminants such as bacteria or cells can compromise the procedures of the experiment (examples of such techniques include wearing the proper personal protective equipment, cleaning important surfaces with ethanol, and pipetting liquids in …show more content…
These considerations stem form the actual particle an individual is attempting to grow or culture. Primarily, it must be considered if the component trying to be cultured is a prokaryotic or a eukaryotic cell, as the two require notably different conditions in order to develop. The most notable difference between the two requirements is that most eukaryotic cells require oxygen in their environments in order to survive, wherein prokaryotes can survive in environments with little to no oxygen and can develop with only a small assortment of nutrients. Therefore, lines can already be drawn as to what media should be used for which type of cell, but in order to determine this it must first be determined what are the different types of media. Generally, the main types of media that will be discussed are Agar media and Broth media: the basic difference between the two is that Agar media is solid in state, thus meaning it is invasive (or does not allow oxygen to enter the environment), and that Broth media is liquid in state, which is a complete opposite of the Agar media (meaning it does allow oxygen to enter the environments). Considering this information, the conclusion can be drawn that eukaryotic cells will most likely grow in Broth media, due to the presence of oxygen, and prokaryotes will most likely grow in either …show more content…
Spencer’s entire project, revolves around the use of a transposon library. In essence, a transposon library consists of a collection of catalogued and labeled strains of a certain molecule or cell, in our case Francisella novicida, which inherently lack a certain component, most usually a gene or certain type of component. These strains become known as mutants and are catalogued in one of these transposon libraries, clearly showing which gene or component the strain is lacking. This is highly imperative for the project and experiment being conducted because the general goal of this project is to identify an enzymatic pathway that can lead to the production of a particular glycolipid, which will result in the enhanced production of NKT cells; in order to determine what enzymatic pathway leads to the eventual enhanced production of NKT cells, we must determine this by finding which enzymes contribute to this over-production, and the best way to find a component that is incorporated into a reaction is to remove that component and observe if the reaction still occurs. Therefore, the use of a library that contains a list of Francisella novicida mutants that lack one specific enzyme (or protein) would prove invaluable to use, as it can be used to determine with significant accuracy which enzymes are a requirement for this enzymatic pathway. Of course, cells are infinitely complex, and as such, they contain and infinitely