Sample information

I found this praying mantis on a pomegranate tree branch outside in my backyard. I collected it at around 12 pm; it was about 54 degrees Fahrenheit outside. I haven’t seen many praying mantises around the area of the tree; it was just a coincidence that I found it.

Methods

l

Protocol: Followed Mini One Protocol

Arthropod Gels: On the arthropod gels, we can see that the DNA Ladder is working well(showing multiple bands), and also is the positive DNA Control. There is also a very faint band on the positive arthropod control, which is good. On the rest of the lanes, like 2, 3, 5, and 7, we cannot see any type of band showing for them.

Wolbachia Gels: For our Wolbachia gels, we could see that the DNA Ladder is a bit fainter than the arthropod gel ones, but it still shows. The positive DNA Control also worked well, with a bright band showing. But I can also see a very faint band in the negative arthropod control, meaning something might have gone wrong. There could have been some contamination between our samples while pipetting.

Analysis: For both the gels, the DNA Ladder and the positive control worked well. There may have been some contamination during pipetting of the negative arthropod control, as a faint band is present. No other bands appear in any of the other lanes on either gel, suggesting there might have been an error in the DNA extraction we performed. We possibly needed to crush up the insects for longer so we could have gotten better results.

Results

I am moderately confident because our Wolbachia gels may have been contaminated. The arthropod negative control is not supposed to have a band, but there is a faint one there. During pipetting, there may have been some mistakes, which made my confidence level not very high.