What in the World is Wolbachia?

For our very last AP Biology lab EVER, my class looked into a very interesting type of bacteria: Wolbachia. Wolbachia is a genus of intracellular bacteria that lives inside the bodies of arthropods and nematodes. Wolbachia bacteria must live and reproduce inside the of insect host cells, as they are endosymbiotic. What exactly does Wolbachia do? Well that is both simple and complicated – Wolbachia bacteria alters the sex of their hosts, usually from male to female.

When I first heard what Wolbachia did, I genuinely could not believe it. How could a bacteria alter gender?? After doing some research, I discovered a few different ways:

1. In some species, infection of Wolbachia bacteria can cause females to reproduce parthenogenetically, meaning that eggs can develop without male fertilization. This would mean that the resulting offsprings would be genetically identical to the mother; they would all be female as well. Wolbachia causes the cells to stop mitosis at anaphase, when the two sets of chromosomes are suppose to separate, which leads to diploid nucleuses. This does not allow the duplicated chromosomes to separate, and thus results in a diploid female.

2. In some species, Wolbachia infections causes fertilized eggs to always develop as female by suppressing the production of masculinizing hormones. This makes it so genetically male embryos develop as females.

3. In some species, Wolbachia causes male embryos to abort in early development. This does not directly change a particular insect’s gender, but it does contribute to the overall feminization effect of Wolbachia.

As you can probably infer, Wolbachia bacteria reside in the reproductive systems of arthropods. Something even more interesting about Wolbachia is that it can be transmitting two ways: horizontally through contact with another organism or the environment , or more commonly, through the female’s eggs. Males cannot pass the bacteria to their offspring due to the absence of eggs in males. As mentioned previously, Wolbachia is a parasite in arthropods. Parasitism is when one organism benefits at the expense of the other – in this instance, the Wolbachia lives and reproduces inside of the reproductive organs of insects and some other arthropods, but causes an effect to the body. Interestingly enough, Wolbachia isn’t always considered a parasite: Inside filarial nematode hosts, Wolbachia is mutualistic – both organisms benefit.

Some of our Lab Equipment 

For this lab, we all went home and captured insects to use for samples and data. The purpose of this lab was to determine if any of these insects have Wolbachia DNA. This lab was like a master lab, involving many types of biotechnology that we have experimented with over the year. We began by crushing the insects’ thoraxes (where their reproductive organs lie) in a lysis solution. We then added DNA primer and a “master solution”, which contained free nucleotides. We ran these samples in a thermocycler to conduct PCR. The process of PCR (polymerase chain reaction) is used to amplify two regions of the DNA so that we could later successfully isolate the Wolbachia data. After the PCR, we began gel electrophoresis to see the results of these amplified products. The presence or absence of the genes on the gel served as date for us to determine whether or not the insects were infected with the Wolbachia parasite. The results of the gel electrophoresis are shown below.

I (Marissa) worked with Davis and Elina, and out of all of the groups, ours seemed to be the most successful in getting accurate data. From our results we can conclude that my insect (found in San Francisco by the other biology teacher) did not contain Wolbachia DNA while Davis’ did. As you can see, only one other person seemed to find Wolbachia DNA, and many other groups were not able to successfully extract insect DNA at all.

Me holding my Data Sample!

I very much enjoyed this lab. I will admit, there were a lot of steps, and some of it was extremely confusing. However, I could definitely tell that this was a very good lab to review all of the technology and lab experiments we had done all year. We used micropipettes, gel electrophoresis, and various machines to conduct PCR. In a perfect world, there would have been more data from the rest of our class so that we could tell the frequency of Wolbachia in our area. I think Wolbachia is an incredibly interesting genus of bacteria, and I am glad that we got to learn about it at all. I was very proud of myself for participating with the micropipettes on this last lab – usually I am too shaky to do it, but this time I was able to relax and compose myself in order to do it. What a great lab to end the year with!

Future AP Biology Team

My friend Davis Whalen and I created a video for future AP Biology students! We used iMovie with a video-vlog approach to discuss our summary of the year, and any advice for the students of next year. Enjoy!

The Mysterious Case of Bob Bacon

Our AP Biology class recently dissected fetal pigs as a way to interactively learn about the systems of the body. After doing so, we split up into groups of five to create a CSI mystery on how one of the pigs died. We created a story line, made up interactive clues, and set up a presentation where the class went to each of the stations to find the clues and attempt to figure out who killed the pig, how, and what body system was affected.

I worked with Amanda, Bharathi, Abi, and Jen S. Our system was the immune system, and we called our dead pig Bob Bacon. We set up his death as a murder mystery, starting off with a Breaking News TV Clip explaining that scientist Bob Bacon has died, and that the police had five possible suspects – all of which were his neighbors. The class was then asked to help out with investigations by visiting each of the “homes” of these suspects and determining who could be guilty based on the timeline, Bob’s medical record, and outside information. After spending about 7 minutes at each table, we reconvened as a class and asked everyone to collaborate and guess who the murderer may have been. We then released two more Breaking News Forecasts, which led the class to conclude that one of the scientists was responsible for giving Bob Bacon HIV 10 years ago, and that it was actually Bob’s cat who killed Bob by transmitting a disease. This disease, called toxoplasmosis, was able to kill Bob because his immune system was weakened from the HIV, which had eventually turned into AIDS. Here is our intro video which set up the scene for the project!

This was definitely one of the hardest projects I have ever had to do. The fact that it was a group project, even though I love all the members of our class, made it that much more difficult. Unfortunately, I was sick during most of the time that we got to work on this project during class, so our group was forced to utilize social media in order to communicate. Even with that disadvantage, I would say that we still did a great job! I enjoyed the creativity allowed through this project. I was able to throw in a lot of special touches and puns (such as the pigs name – ex. Connor Mc. Snorts) which delighted me and (hopefully) amused everyone else. It was interesting that we had to make some sort of wild connection that was so abstract that the class would most likely not be able to guess it at first, and THEN have to actually make them guess it within the time period. I am disappointed that I was not able to see the other groups’ projects (I hate being sick!) but I can only imagine that they were fantastic!

LiMPETS Reflection

This last Wednesday, our AP Biology class took a field trip to Fitzgerald Marine Resort to interact with the tide pools that line our coast. We all bundled up in layers and went out on the beach, viewing the marine life and collecting scientific data for Save The Bay along the way.

Photo by R. Girard

I learned a lot more things on this field trip than I actually expected. The first thing I spotted after stepping upon the beach were hundreds, maybe even thousands, of Velella Velella. They looked like plastic to me at first, but our naturalist, Abby, explained to us that they were actually jelly-fish-like-looking Cniderians! Velella are cobalt colored with clear sails (which I had mistaken for plastic) that help them move along the surface of the ocean. These mysterious beauties lined the sand and the rocks like confetti – it was quite the sight to see!

Photo by S. Conde

Something that became very apparent to me during this field trip was how dynamic the ocean and tides really are. Our teacher Ms. Girard researched the tide schedule beforehand to find the optimal time to go out when the tide was as its lowest so that we could explore more and see the most organisms. However, we ended up arriving about 20 minutes late, and it became very apparent that the tide was on the rise! While doing our research we had to check behind our backs every few seconds to make sure we weren’t swept up by a wave. We started out as far as we could go and worked our way back to the shore quickly in order to get the most amount of data. I thought it was so interesting how quickly the waves changed and found that change to be fascinating.

Photo by R. Girard – our group collecting data 27 meters from shore!

Another thing that I learned was about the ocean zones. After exploring the tide pools for a while, it became obvious that there were certain areas where organisms of the same type resided. After we collected data with our small groups, we all got together and counted the amount of Big Green and Sunburst Anemones in a larger zone and were astonished about how many we counted. I did some research on my own afterwards and learned that there are four commonly recognized tidal zones based on exposure during tidal periods,  wave action and shoreline features. Factors that determine whether or not an organism can live happily in one of these zones includes temperature, water depth, exposure to water, salinity, and wave action. The zones are displayed in the picture below:

Photo taken from http://oregontidepools.org/tidalzones

Unfortunately, I was not at the class where Abby came in and gave our AP Biology class information about the tide pools and the organisms that inhabit it. However, I was able to make some connections to various things we learned in class. First of all, I was able to see how many organisms had adapted to the environment in which they were living. For example, the anemones were able to live both in and out of water by holding different shapes depending on whether or not they were submerged. Another thing that was very evident to me was how all the organisms worked and lived together. I witnessed some organisms eating each other (and let me tell you, seeing an anemone eat a Sea Star was quite dramatic) but for the most part I saw everything living in peace and harmony. It really exemplified a working ecosystem for me. There were many memorable moments on this field trip, but perhaps the most was getting to see my classmate, Simone, pick up a Sea Star and hold it in her hands. I am quite a fan of Sea Stars, and I usually do not get to see them when I go to the tide pools on my own time, so that was very cool for me. I also enjoyed getting to collect data for a research organization such as Save the Bay – it was not hard at all, and it was in my opinion a better way to learn about all of the creatures living there. I would definitely recommend that future classes continue to go on this field trip – I am a huge advocator for hands-on learning and I think field trips are the best way to really experience that. The only thing I would change about this field trip would be to talk more and learn more about the Seals that were sunbathing on the rocks. There were even some pups there, and I would love to learn more about them! But overall, I had a blast, and would definitely be interested in going back!

Photo by R. Girard

Here is a link to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve!

https://parks.smcgov.org/fitzgerald-marine-reserve

Works Cited:

“Tidal Zones.” Tidal Zones. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2015. <http://oregontidepools.org/tidalzones&gt;.

Kingdom Protista

This week in AP Biology, we performed a lab to learn more about organisms that fall under the Protist Kingdom! We examined organisms under a microscope, created sketches, conducted research on each individual protist, and created a group project on the Kingdom Protista. Additionally, we did some brief research on the three main types of seaweed: red, brown, and green. I worked with Allie Coon and Jennifer Schulz, and we created a prezi for our visual presentation. Click here to see and interact with this prezi!

Three Person Babies

On February 3rd, 2015, Great Britain passed a law to legalize mitochondrial DNA modification, thus allowing “three-person babies” or “three-person embryos”. Mitochondrial diseases strike many in the UK, and generally are fatal or reduce the life of a child significantly. Symptoms of a mitochondrial disease include seizures, diabetes, muscle atrophy, and general neurological problems. This new law allows doctors to replace the nucleus from an egg that has mitochondrial mutations with a nucleus from a healthy egg donor. This gives hopes to mothers with genetic mitochondrial disease to have healthy children.

The legislation of a “three-person embryo” has stirred up a lot of controversy. Many people are excited about the possibility of eliminating mitochondrial diseases and reducing death in children. However, others are worried that allowing modification of mitochondrial DNA would be a slippery slope to allowing nuclear DNA modification. This would open the door to modifying phenotype, physique, characteristics, and possibly personality type. Many think that this would be completely immoral and lead to a lot of societal problems, such as decreasing genetic variation and increasing the gap between the rich and the poor.

I personally am for mitochondrial DNA modification. I think anything that can help cure diseases and increase the lifespan of children is something that we should continue to invest in. However, I definitely understand why people are worried about this and how this could potentially lead to other things. I recently watched the movie Gattaca, which is a futuristic utopian movie created to highlight the dangers of normalizing genetic modification in humans. In this movie, parents are allowed to pick the genotype and phenotype of their children. Because of this, one’s position in society is based off of his genetics. I really enjoyed this movie, and I can see a lot of relations between Gattaca and the “three-person babies”. I’ll insert the trailer below:

To look at the KQED article, click here!

Don’t Sneeze, Please!

It is winter time, and you know what that means: Cold Season! While being in the cold does not directly translate to getting the virus for the common cold, lower temperatures often weaken the immune disease, inhibiting the body from properly fighting off the virus. There are over 200 different viruses of the common cold which circulate, causing most people to catch the cold two to three times per year. The common cold viruses are transmitted through breathing in the aerosol droplets of the virus and by touching your face with something that touched a surface that the cold resided on.  I’m sure you’ve experienced it – the stuffy nose, itchy throat, runny eyes, and the all around feeling of grossness. You feel yucky, chances are you have to take off from school or work, and it just is generally not a good experience. So then, the real question is, how can I not catch the cold this cold season? Below are some tips as to how to prevent catching the common cold:

1. WASH YOUR HANDS!!! Wash your hands as frequently as possible to avoid transmitting the virus by touching surfaces.
2. Stay warm: keep your immune system strong and running by staying out of the cold and keeping your body temperature warm.
3. Don’t share drinks.
4. Cough into your elbow or arm.
5. Eat foods that are high in Vitamin C to boost your immune system.
6. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth. In general, just avoid touching your face!
7. Bring hand sanitizer with you in case you can’t find a sink before eating.
8. Wear a medical mask. While you might think it looks silly, wearing a mask could be a good way to protect yourself from the virus.

Stay healthy!

Never, Ever Give Up!

In this TedTalk, Diana Nyad speaks to the public about her incredible journey; she swam 100 miles from Cuba to Florida at the age of 64. She is the first person ever to have made this swim, which is incredibly impressive. This had been Diana’s dream for a very long time, and it is amazing that she never gave up and worked until she accomplished this task, especially at her age. I love TedTalks in general, and this one was no exception. I found Diana’s speech to be very inspirational. Though I have no desire to even swim 1 mile (much less 100), I think her message is applicable to anyone who has a dream or a goal they want to achieve. I do not necessarily have a dream that I have been striving towards for years, but I have always wanted to become fluent in french. After five years of studying the language, I have definitely had my doubts about whether or not this goal could possibly be achieved. However, I know that as long as I keep trying, and make efforts to find new people to converse with and new vocabulary words to learn, I can achieve this goal – most likely before I am the age of 64! I am hoping to someday live in a french speaking country and become bilingual.

I think that Diana’s story is incredible. My favorite parts of her speech were the quotations she incorporated – especially the one from Socrates: “To be is to do”. This one line seems extremely simple and obvious – in order to be something or someone, you have to do what is required of that position or status. However, I think many people go through life thinking that they can just fake their way to their goal without actually having to work. This talk has impacted me by opening my eyes to this and reminding me that with big dreams comes big effort.

Here is the Diana Nyad’s Ted Talk! Make sure to microSCOPE it out! (ba doom tsss) http://www.ted.com/talks/diana_nyad_never_ever_give_up#t-800271

Works Cited:

Feydey. “File:Open Book Nae French Flag.png.” Wikimedia Commons, 7 Oct. 2011. Web. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Open_book_nae_French_flag.png&gt;.

Ebola and IDEO Challenge

We have been researching ways to help fight Ebola both inside and outside the classroom. For a project in class, I created an iMovie to educate others about the Ebola Virus:

We also participated in the IDEO challenge, which is an online challenge to contribute ideas to fight Ebola or at least suppress it. Here is a link to farther read about my idea to fight Ebola by fighting dehydration!

https://openideo.com/challenge/fighting-ebola/ideas/well-well-well-let-s-cure-ebola

What are your ideas to cure Ebola?

Cracking the Code of Life

Cracking the Code of Life is a documentary that focuses on the Human Genome Project and the race to decode the complete set of nucleotide pairs in the entire human genome. The race is between a private and public institution, both of whom had the same goal: to find a new and efficient way to map out the letter sequence of DNA in humans. The previous method, which was to decode each phosphate band – A, C, T, and G –  by hand, was scheduled to take about 15 years. The race started when a man named Craig Venter created his own private company by the name of Celera Genomics to find a quicker way to do this in 2 years instead of 15. Machines were created which could decode 1,000 genes per second; humans, on the other hand, could only map out about 100 per day the previous way. In turn, the government (public institution) stepped up its game to create new machines and laboratories so that they could find the information first and therefore make the information open to the general public instead of patented. In the end, Bill Clinton declared a tie between the two organizations after they had mapped out all 3 billion base pairs by using each other’s work.

This documentary also focuses on two genetic disorders: Tay Sach’s disease and Cystic Fibrosis. We followed around two families who each had babies affected with with each disease. I personally found the parts that focused on these families and these diseases to be the most interesting.The idea of my future children being diagnosed with either scares me a lot though, because each are extremely small mutations in the fact that only one (Tay Sach’s) or three (Cystic Fibrosis) letters are changed. I think it would be so extremely sad to be a mother and hear that your beautiful child only has a few more years to live. Both diseases are incredibly evasive, and those few years the child has left will be spent in close to a vegetable state, with total reliance on the parents. I don’t know if I would be able to handle that as a parent, to be honest – it’s a scary concept.

Overall, I enjoyed this documentary. I personally think the movie would have been better if there was a stronger focus on documenting families who are affected by genetic diseases. However, I understand that really was not the main point of Cracking the Code of Life, and enjoyed watching nonetheless. I really find movies to be an engaging way to learn, and look forward to hopefully receiving more assignments such as this one in the future!