Help with Presentation - (Feb/13/2014 )

Hi guys,

I will be presenting a group project tomorrow to our TI about amplification of a lipase gene that we did for the past month. We stopped after amino acid deduction, sequence alignment, and construction of the phylogenetic tree.

I accept that one weakness is that we have no proof whatsoever that what we had in the tube is indeed the gene we're looking for. I know we could give all sorts of reason but from the scientific standpoint, is there anything I can say to defend our lack of further studies with regards to its expression in a host?

Is it always possible to express any gene (known / unknown / suspect)? Must it be done all the time?

Also, how much can one trust the sequence deposited on the public domain to identify anything via the various tools (BLAST etc)?

We're new to this but everything about molecular biology is fun and this semester's been great! I hope I get some feedback and guidance soon.

Thanks!

For these sorts of things it is always good to be able to give a "future directions" or "further work" part of your presentation - this is where you outline possible experiments that you could carry out to further characterize your gene.

From a science standpoint - how would you try to express the gene -plasmid, integrated, repressor?  What type of cells would you express in (yeast, bacteria, mammalian, insect)?  What are the limitations of each?

Thank you bob1!

What about the sequence alignment? Is it a good support to our lack of additional bench work?

Maybe - it's good stuff to have, but actual physical data (e.g. actual sequence read) is hard to beat.

I see. Thanks! :)