Are/were you ever a undergraduate/postgraduate biology student? I need some help.?

Question

I am in 12th grade. As a part of the curriculum I am required to do any standard B.Sc Biology level practicals experiment as a project. Do you have any suggestions? I would like to know of some experiment which you particularly like/liked.

I wouyld prefer plant-related practicals

Answer 1

try gene silencing. do some prelim studies on it. it's about masking a particular (usually harmful) gene so that it is not expressed. eg. khesari (type of lentil in India) flour (besan) is used in roadside snack stalls. this lentil causes paralysis on long term use. so it is suggested that this be used only as fodder. if the gene responsible for the expression or production of the paralysing toxin is masked, it could be easily used for human consumption.
this method is also used to produce fruits with long shelf-life (gene for ripening hormone- C2H2 masked).
best of luck.

Answer 2

In my general Biology lab, we did two experiments that really stuck with me. The first was us extracting DNA from the liver of a lab rat my professor had been using for experiments. We actually got to euthanize the rat, break the spine, and cut out the liver. The DNA strands were visible on the glass rod. The second experiment was us testing ourselves for the sickle cell trait. We had to prick ourselves and take a small amount of blood to use for the experiment. I cant remember any of the details because that was 5 yrs ago but those experiments were really cool.

Answer 3

Oh well, I'm not too sure if you did particularly like this experiment, but it has something to do with prawns.

I'm currently doing this project now, and it is about extracting Chitin from prawns. I intend to test the theorized uses of Chitin/chitosan.

Its a real cool project, doesn't involve lots of work, but quite a lot of waiting time. Perfect if you're on a tight schedule. =]

I've got all the processes ready, and if you're interested, I did send you the protocol.