Objective

• Compile all metadata into shared spreadsheet
• Continue working on the scientific poster
• Write an abstract

Procedure

• Vote on a logo and shirt design
• Finalize DNA samples
  • Collect sample ID and metadata on soil
    • Locations – coordinates
    • Tree species
    • Soil pH
    • Soil texture
    • ng/ul
    • Volume in tube
    • positive or negative PCR results
    • soil label
• Work on poster
  • Address comments
• Write final abstract
  • Use checklist provided on modules to write it

Abstract

Soil ciliates have very little research done in its field, especially measuring the biodiversity of ciliates. Biodiversity of organisms, especially microorganisms in any ecosystem, is an important component to the stability of the ecosystem. Thus, this study was done in order to measure and quantify the measure of biodiversity of ciliates in soil ecosystems using a new method to extract eDNa, also giving us an idea if this new method, the silica bead method, is a viable one to extract eDNA in future studies. The silica bead method was utilized for the actual extraction of eDNA from the selected soil sample. Gel electrophoresis, the nanodrop spectrophotometer, and PCR were all effectively used to determine if the extraction of DNA from the soil sample was successful or not. After performing the eDNA extraction and the tests, the presence of DNA in our tests were negative, meaning we were unable to effectively extract eDNA from our soil sample. The DNA concentration was 7.1ng/ul as shown by the nanodrop spectrophotometer, an extremely low concentration. The gel electrophoresis fluorescent imaging found that there was no DNA in any of our lanes in both the pre-PCR imaging and the post-PCR imaging. The silica bead method was done correctly, without fail, leading us to analyze the metadata of our soil to determine if any of the other environmental factors prevented us from extracting eDNA. From the following results, we can reasonably conclude that there was no eDNA to extract from the soil sample or that there were certain factors surrounding the soil sample that prevented us from extracting the eDNA.

Poster

Conclusion

We were able to finish our abstract and scientific poster. Next week, we will be presenting our posters and demonstrating all the skills we learned over this semester.