The Crops Are Drowning!
Based on my last few posts to my blog one may think this internship has been all fun and games. That could not be any further from the truth. Everyday I wake up at 7:30am, go get breakfast, then go to the lab by 9:00am. Nine times out of ten I leave the lab around 7:00pm. While this may seem like many hours to some people, I’ve grown quite used to being in the lab for this long. Science is a delicate thing. It requires the utmost care, attention and dedication.
All Borlaug-Ruan International interns have a project they are required to complete by the end of their internship. For most this entails a combination of field and laboratory work. My specific project deals with an issue that afflicts much of the crops in southern China. This issue is water-logging. This region is regularly bombarded with powerful rain. When rainfall is heavy for an extended period of time the soil becomes so saturated with water that it can no longer absorb any more water, thus causing floods and causing severe damage to crop yields. This damage occurs because the saturation of the soil is so drastic that there is not enough room for oxygen to get to the roots and be used in respiration. For my project, I have been doing research on two different transgenic (genetically modified) maize lines to examine their effectiveness in tolerance of water-logging. Both lines have a specific gene which may or may not be beneficial in water logged conditions.
The beginning of my experiment was field work heavy. I had to plant and cultivate the maize seedlings. The transgenic maize had already been pre-prepared for my experiment before I began due to it being a long process. First I had to separate the seeds into 14 groups of 20 keeping in mind their lines and group number then put them into net bags. The seeds needed to be cleaned before the experiment began so we washed them once using a diluted alcohol solution and then washed them two more times using water. Once this step was completed the seeds needed to be planted. They were first planted in sand and allowed to germinate for 4–5 days. After this period the seedlings needed to be moved. They were put into containers filled with water and wrapped in aluminum foil to block out light. I wrapped the bases of the plants with soft sponge and inserted them into a piece of cardboard with pre-cut holes in it. This cardboard piece is then placed on top of the container.
The seedlings were allowed to grow for about two weeks. Every three days photos of the phenotype (physical appearance) of the maize were taken.
*The steps below have been greatly simplified.*
After the final phenotype photos were taken all of the plants were cut in half and put into paper bags so the leaves and roots could weighed. The weight of all 112 of the seedlings was measured wet and then dry the next day. Before the maize was weighed, a piece of every plant’s leaf and root was extracted for gene analysis. First the samples needed to be ground up into a fine powder and then RNA was extracted from them. Once this was done the RNA samples needed to undergo reverse transcription so cDNA(coding DNA) could be obtained. After this step it was time for qPCR(Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction). This step “amplifies” or replicates the cDNA many times so the expression of the gene of interest can be calculated later on. QPCR is carried out by a thermal cycling machine which exposes the samples to varying temperatures for varying amounts of time. This machine also monitors how many cycles it takes for the samples to be amplified to the maximum point. This information can then be used to calculate the gene expression level.
This entire experiment has required numerous hours inside the greenhouse and the lab. It has shown me the extent of work that is necessary for any scientific study. Most importantly, this experience has reassured me that the field of science is something that I would like pursue a career in, in the future. The possibility of being part of the next breakthrough that could save millions of lives excites and motivates me. I have seen so many people stricken with disease and that is the reason I am so drawn to science and the potential it has to make people’s lives a little easier. Every experiment I intend to carry out in future will be in service of something far greater than myself or financial gain. They will be for the children mourning the loss of a loved one taken away too soon by cancer, hospital patients who have only been given a few weeks left to live, and for the millions of people all around the world who are dying for a cure.
