20.109(S07): Expression engineering report

Assignment

You are asked to write a formal lab report detailing your work in this module. Specifics for each section of this report are detailed below. More general information about formatting the report are mostly addressed here

Abstract

• Please keep the number of words under 250.
• Do not include references in the abstract.
• Try drafting this section after you’ve written the rest of the report.
• If you’re truly stuck, start by modifying one crystallizing sentence from each of the sections of your report.
• Please do not plagiarize (accidentally or other) the class wiki. This applies to your entire report.

Introduction

The homework you wrote after the first day of this new module will serve at the heart of your introduction. You should add (at least) one final paragraph to narrow the information “funnel,” ending your introduction with a clear description of the problem you’re studying and the method you are using. If you would like to preview for the reader your key results and conclusions in the last sentence of your introduction, you may.

Materials and Methods

If you used any kits for any of the manipulations, it is sufficient to cite the manufacturer’s directions, e.g. “yeast were transformed according to the Q-biogene transformation kit protocol.” Subdivide this section into the following

1. Yeast strains and plasmids
   • list genotypes and plasmid names when known
2. PCR
   • include primer design info here
   • include primer sequences, for knockout and for candidate verification
   • include PCR cycling conditions
3. Yeast transformation
   • include how you selected for transformants
   • include what you did to verify that URA3 was integrated where you thought.
4. Yeast Microarray
   • mention kits as relevant, including any deviation from published protocol if any
   • mention how many yeast and how much RNA was used
   • describe array analytical methods in results section rather than in Materials and Methods

Results

figures

You should include but are not limited to the following figures and tables

1. Figure 1
   • panel A: table describing transformation results
   • panel B: agarose gel verifying URA3 insertion
2. Figure 2
   • Spot test images
3. Figure 3
   • microarray analytics
4. Figure 4
   • microarray conclusions

Each figure should be numbered, and should have a title and legend

text

• In paragraph form, describe each figure and the observations you made.
• As much as possible, reserve conclusions about your data for the discussion section. Clearly an exception to this will be which of your deletion candidates was correct, as this information is critical for the next steps in the experiments.

Discussion

You should include but are not limited to

• conclusions you can draw from your work, including any uncertainties
• other data (published or personal communications) that support or contradict your conclusions
• limitations of your work, e.g. what kinds of experiments/controls/samples would have been great to include
• next experiments you would like to try to extend your findings and strengthen your conclusions