Sample information

Spider was located in house by the front door. It was in a small web. no other spiders were nearby. Specimen has longer cephalothorax, trichobothria on long legs, front facing eyes. specimen is about 1/16 inch in size.

Methods

For this experiment, DNA was extracted from the indoor arthropods by crushing the tissue and using a lysis buffer to break open the cells, then centrifuging the samples to separate out the DNA. The extracted DNA was then used in PCR to amplify both the CO1 gene (as a control to make sure the DNA extraction worked) and a Wolbachia specific gene. Each PCR reaction included the DNA sample, primers, nucleotides, buffer, and DNA polymerase, and went through repeated cycles of denaturation, annealing, and extension to copy the DNA. After PCR, the products were run on an agarose gel using electrophoresis and visualized under UV light to check for the presence or absence of bands for CO1 and Wolbachia.

Results

my confidence level is high because I did two duplex gels, and both came out the same or better. I can trust my results because a classmate also had to do a second duplex gel and we had the same specimen. His was positive and mine was still not.