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Molecular Laboratory

GelPic

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There are seven steps utilized in the molecular laboratory:

  1. Extraction
  2. Amplification
  3. Electrophoresis
  4. Freeze and Squeeze
  5. Sequencing
  6. Alignment
  7. Phylogenetic inference

Protocol Templates

To streamline the processes in the molecular lab, we have developed a series of protocol templates that can be used for various steps along the way. The protocol templates are excel files that have been formatted to determine the correct concentration of reagent that will be necessary based on the number of samples for each reaction. There are different templates for each gene region of interest.

Animal Avoidant Primers

As symbionts, gut fungi are inherently connected to their host insect. This can present problems in the molecular laboratory, since we are interested in the gut fungi and not the insect DNA. Therefore, we have developed a series of primers specifically formulated to avoid insect tissue.