While Dr. Connell's away, what does the lab do?

We keep on doing science!

by: Sarah Turner

While Dr. Connell is on her Antarctic adventure for the next couple months, Katie and I (the Connell techs) are holding down the fort in the laboratory. 

 We've been very busy with a variety of research projects including a project we call "the BrdU project." (Pronounced Burr-doo) 

The BrdU project involves the use of a synthetic chemical called 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU for short). It can replace thymidine during DNA replication and results in labelled DNA. 

Because BrdU can be incorporated into DNA (including human DNA), it is considered a mutagenic hazard. (causing DNA mutations) We always use extreme caution in the lab when working with BrdU including wearing gloves, a lab coat, and working in a chemical fume hood. Ben talked more about the importance of chemical fume hoods here. 

BrdU is of special interest to scientists because of it's unique quality to label DNA. At the Connell lab, we are especially interested in BrdU labelling of Antarctic fungi DNA.    

BrdU's molecular structure and labeling of DNA
(citation)

There are many steps involved in the process, but recently I've been culturing some of our Antarctic fungi  with BrdU to try to determine which species incorporate the BrdU into their DNA and which species do not. After the BrdU is incubated with the cells, the DNA is then extracted from the cells and put on a cesium chloride (CsCl) gradient in order to separate the labelled DNA (+BrdU) from the unlabelled DNA (-BrdU).

Stay tuned for more about CsCl gradients and updates from Dr. Connell's adventures in Antarctica!