Purpose:

Today we were given time to work on our research posters and ask any questions we had to our professor and lab assistants.  By the end of the day we finished our lab poster.

Procedure:

1. Review our previously made abstracts and introductions, and amend them to best suit our poster.
2. Choose an agreeable template and edit the format to work with our particular poster.
3. Fill in each section of the poster

An image of our poster rough draft

Title:

Constructing a Working Protocol for Soil Ciliate DNA Analysis

Abstract:

Currently, there is a lack of a reliable, standardized procedure for the extraction of soil ciliate DNA for subsequent metabarcoding analysis. The purpose of this research experiment was to find the most suitable protocol for ciliate DNA extraction and analysis. Our classroom tested Chelex, Ludox centrifugation, and Powersoil DNA Extraction protocols in groups of three to determine the most efficient DNA Extraction method. We found that using the Chelex DNA Extraction method, along with PCR Amplification using V4 Primers was the best DNA Extraction method in that it was quick and easy to perform, and yielded DNA in the 400 – 500 base pair region. Next steps include troubleshooting our procedure, because many groups had negative results after following are final agreed upon procedure.

Conclusion:

I am fairly happy with our poster’s content however I will definitely be changing some of the visual aspects of it, so that it is more eye catching and less unsightly.