Jekielek_Week 5 Reflection
This week’s papers and discussions have been very relevant to some considerations that I’m very currently thinking on in my work. Specifically, the use of different extraction kits to maximize DNA quantification is at the top of my list. We’ve recently been talking about comparing the DNA extraction efficacy of both the Qiagen Power Water and Mollusc kits, but are reluctant to change in the middle of the game. There are also financial considerations with this as the Mollusc kit is cheapter than the Power Water kit. In the end, we’ve decided to do a separate comparative study between these two kits rather than adding the Mollusc kit to an already semi-processed set of samples extracted using the Power Water. However, if the protocol had not already been established AND had I not been completely clueless at the beginning of my work, I may have conducted the comparative study and had already answered this question.
The papers and discussion really introduced me to the precipitation method for extracting DNA as well. It seems like it has specific applications and that it would not be the most useful for the questions that I’m asking and the information I’m seeking out, but I wish it did. The differences between the precipitation and filtering methods when it comes to the amount of sampling each requires is surprising. I wish I could collect just 15mL of sample for my sampling if only for the saving of storage space. But, again, it all comes back to what is the question that you’re asking.