Question:
Which of the following can be accomplished using In situ hybridization techniques?
- a) The precise quantification of a given mRNA transcription present in a cell.
- b) The determination of mRNA transcription localization in a slice of tissue.
- c) The analysis of chromosome position during meiosis.
- d) Both b and c
- e) All of the above
Answer: d
Comments:
I feel that the class time dedicated to the techniques presentations provided an interesting crash course in a number of different techniques that I might not have had the time to look into myself. Additionally, I feel that condensing the presentation into three minutes forced me to really focus on the most important details of the technique, This forced me to think more closely about the technique and its applications in a way that I wouldn’t have otherwise. As is evident from the techniques presentation document posted in the blog, I was responsible for the technique application portion of the assignment. Writing the application portion provided me with a lot of information on the uses of the technique. For example I was surprised by the fact that ISH technologies can be used to physically label portions of entire chromosomes. I was unaware of the fact that DNA re-hybridization could occur on such a large scale. In terms of information on developmental genetics that I learned from the presentation, I thought that Jason’s section provided a fair bit of detail into that. More specifically, one could use ISH to label the mRNA of a morphogen to visualize its localization within specific tissues, either spatially or temporally. To conclude, I think that this served to improve my understanding of morphogen analysis by allowing me to study a particular technique that can be used to study their localization. By understanding the technique in greater detail I feel that I was able to better understand when the technique was used in an example in class.