Sample information

This fly was found in the sand near the shore of Redondo Beach Pier, near bunches of dead seaweed. It was collected in the afternoon, at ~4:30 pm. The weather was partly cloudy and about 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Many flies populated the area.

Methods

Description:

• a 1% gel is placed into a gel electrophoresis chamber with the wells laying closest to the negative electrode
• TAE buffer is poured into the chamber, filling until the gel is covered by ~2 mm of TAE
• 10 μL of each sample is loaded into each well
• lid of chamber is attached, red plug to red and black plug to black
• attach red and black wires to the power source to their respective colors
• turn on power source and set amperage to 70 mA and voltage to 165 V
• set time to 60 min
• start run by pressing start button
• lower amperage and voltage as necessary to prevent gel from being ruined

Results

Since there’s a 60% chance that a kelp fly could be infected with Wolbachia, given the small sample size (one specimen per species) of the experiment, there is a possibility that the fly tested was actually infected with Wolbachia. However, since the positive control (with Wolbachia and arthropod DNA) showed up on the gel, it was reasonable to conclude that the kelp fly’s gel results were valid, and therefore that the kelp fly was Wolbachia negative.