Genetics Workshops

The life depends on genes

Every year we perform scientific workshops with K12 students from high schools located around UAH campus, with the intention of educating them in the ambit of the gene expression, gene regulation and its effects.

1) During practices the students learn the properties of chromosomal DNA, and how to determine the presence of a gene using PCR technologies.

2) Students also learn how to grow bacteria (harmless Escherichia coli strains), to recognize phenotypes and related those phenotypes with genotypes.

In the figures can be seen several bacteria strains which were grown in rich media. Such strains contain genes that produces in the colonies identifiable colors (top figure) or luminescence (bottom figure)

3) Finally, the students correlate the expression of a particular gene with the ability of the diverse bacteria strains to grow under several media conditions.