M back!

ALright. THere is no time for me to dilly dally.

PArt 1: Big Thanks
I returned from my Chiang Mai REcce trip on Tues Night at around midnight so I am still trying to sort out my table from the Teachers' Day bounty because I left in such a rush on that day itself and not forgetting work that lay astrewn. Many thanks for the warm wishes (card, sms, emails etc) and prezzies which I either ate/havent try or havent read. I was expecting the students to be mugging feverishly at home so I didnt think that pple will drop a note which is cool by me. But then those that did, it was nice.

Part 2: Landed and Back to Reality

I have just scanned and posted a revision exercise prepared by Mr Loo which you can try on your own. It is a pdf document and answers are attached. you will be able to find it on R.connect. It is a warm-up exercise for the core paper. (not a mock yah)
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Qn 1: How does Ti plasmid infect the plant cells.

In cloning, there are two ways to go about doing it:
a) after inserting of gene of interest, you perform electroporation so that the plasmid will enter the protoplast. The T-DNA will take care of itself and integrate.
b) after........, you introduce the plasmid back to the bacteria and let the bacteria infect the plant cells/protoplast.

This is to clarify as kindly pointed out by a reader (hahah) - and I have made the appropriate corrections.
For electroporation, we use protoplast culture.
But if you are using Agrobacterium tumefaciens(and yes, there is an 's'), you can either infect a protoplast culture with the bacteria (co-cultivation) or you could inject them into a wounded tissue of the plant and subsequently extract and culture the transformed plant cells.

And I have checked, there is greater efficiency when you use the bacteria instead of electroporation (which is understandable since it is a natural process) =)



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Part 3: Papers

If you are still ultra blur, you might not realised that the sequence of papers is:
Paper 3: application
paper 2: core
paper 1: Mcqs

I leave you to check the dates but apparently, I encountered students who did not realise that.


Application Syllabus: (pls check the details if you need to)
- DNA Cloning (Genetic Engineering)
- DNA Analysis and Genomics
- Human genome project
- Stem cells
- The treatment of genetic diseases in human
- Gene therapy
- Cloning
- Genetic engineering and genetically modified organisms (GMOs)