Page 9 - It's in the DNA_Neat

Chapter 3: At CSIR-IGIB

On a bright, sunny day, our teacher announced in the class that we were going
for a study tour-not to a historical monument, but a modern biotechnology lab. The
moment she mentioned the name, I knew, here was another chance to meet our
scientist-friend and see how he ran the ataxia genetic test on DNA.

And sure enough at CSIR-IGIB, we gathered around a table with some equipment
to see how a genetic test. We were given tubes to spit and collect our saliva. We
were also given solutions that would break open the cells. The scientists kept call-
ing it “lysing” the cell. When the DNA spills out, we put some alcohol, which makes
the DNA precipitate. We could see a white cloudy ball in the tube.

What would they do with the DNA if it was given for testing? They would carry out a
process called PCR-Polymerase Chain Reaction. This is just a quick way of making

many copies of the ataxia gene in a tube. In an afternoon, they could make 230,
about a trillion copies of the ataxia gene-even if they had only one copy to start with.
The ataxia gene was now “amplified”, enough to see it.
See it? How?
Well, we got a glimpse of that too. The scientists make a squishy gel-feels like the
jelly we eat-but don’t you try eating it. It has some dangerous chemicals and some
dyes that glow when they bind to DNA.