Laminar flow hood is a laboratory equipment containing a bench that provides an aseptic environment for scientist (biologist) to work with their samples. The use of laminar flow has been adopted in the microbiology laboratory, botany, chemistry, virology and pharmaceutical laboratory. The primary reason for using laminar flow hood is to avoid the contamination of samples with dust and microbial contaminants (more…)
BionuggetsTHE LAMINAR FLOW HOOD
BionuggetsDifferent methods of making competent cells
The ability of bacteria to take up exogenous DNA usually from closely related species which are exposed into their environment and incorporate it into their genome is known as competence, the process known as transformation. Some bacteria naturally can incorporate exogeneous DNA into their genome; these bacteria are called naturally competent bacteria. Examples include Streptococcus pneumonia, Bacillus subtillis, Helicobacter pylori Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter species. The uptake of exogenous DNA from the environment often helps transformants to utilize certain substrate in the environment or become antibiotics resistance. However, it should be noted that transformation in naturally competent bacteria is usually one in a million or more. Thus, there is a need for induced transformation through artificial means. (more…)
Direct method of sterility test on the autoclave load and the significance of the sterility test
Sterile pharmaceutical products are best administered to patients in sterile form, devoid of microbial lives. If they are administered with contaminations (i.e. containing any microorganisms or its products). It can lead to secondary infection, thus worsening the patients’ health and consequentially death. (more…)
BionuggetsTRANSLATION IS CELL BIOLOGY
Not to be confused with Transcription
Translation is the synthesis of protein from mRNA template obtained from the transcription process. The translation process is carried out in an amino acid polymerizing organelle called ribosome. Translation marks the completion of the process of gene expression. (more…)
BionuggetsMECHANISM OF DNA REPLICATION
Increase in body size, height, and weight of every organism start from the body cells, and the whole activities of the cells are determined by the nucleic acid (Deoxyribonucleic acid) that is found in their nucleus and nucleoid of eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells respectively. (more…)
BionuggetsCELL ORGANELLES: THE ENDOPLASMIC RETICULUM
Inside the eukaryotic cell is an organelle called endoplasmic reticulum which is responsible for packaging and sending proteins and lipids around the cells. It is an interconnected network of flattened membranes enclosed tube-like structure known as cisternae. Not to be confused with Golgi apparatus. (more…)
BionuggetsCELL ORGANELLES: THE GOLGI APPARATUS
Golgi apparatus is a stack of flattened membrane bound vesicles that functions in the storage, modification and repackaging of manufactured biochemical substances in the cell. This organelle was discovered by an Italian scientist called Camillo Golgi while investigating the nervous system in 1879, the organelle was named after him in 1898.
Golgi apparatus is divided into two types based on their location in the cell into:
- cis Golgi apparatus
- trans Golgi apparatus
cis-Golgi apparatus
This is the type of Golgi apparatus found very close to the endoplasmic reticulum
trans-Golgi apparatus
This type of Golgi apparatus is found on the outside of the endoplasmic reticulum.
How Golgi apparatus works
First the endoplasmic reticulum packages protein, lipids and other biochemical substances into vesicles and releases these vesicles into the Golgi apparatus which modify and repackage the proteins and lipids into vesicles and them release them to go into:
- Lysosome, an organelle which contains enzymes responsible for degrading and recycling molecules in living cells
- Cell membrane which leads to the outside of the cell. For example, insulin produced in ᵝ – cells of pancreas are released into the blood to help regulate the blood sugar level.
- Plasma membrane for cell repair and replacement.
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BionuggetsINTRODUCTION TO MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
So many questions we all asked when we were young: (more…)
BionuggetsINTRODUCTION TO NUCLEIC ACID
Nucleic acid is the overall name for both DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) and RNA (Ribonucleic acid). It is a biomolecule found in all living organism that stores genetic information that is transferred from parents to their offspring from one generation to another. Nucleic acid is made up of monomers called nucleotides. (more…)
BionuggetsCELL WALL APPENDAGES: THE PILUS
Pilus- latin name for “Hair” is a hair-like cell wall appendage found on the surfaces of many prokaryotes (especially bacteria). Pili (plural of Pilus) is shorter and thinner than flagella (another important bacterial cell wall appendage). (more…)