We're Getting DNA Sequenced At McLab; No, Really!

Kris just left with a box to ship 8 samples of purified PCR product killifish cyt-b mtDNA to a DNA sequencing business in San Diego commonly referred to as McLab. It turns out that the company is really "Molecular Cloning Laboratory", but of course that gets shortened to McLab by everyone but the company itself. So anyway, if this works, Kris will have the last 4 sequences he needs for his mummichog project, those that are from Nantucket (which is the whole point of the project, to compare Nantucket fish to those from the mainland to see if there's any evidence of differentiation in the isolated population). Also in the box are four cyt-b samples from stippled studfish as a test. If it goes well, we have another 30-something to ship out and hopefully get a good idea of what degree of genetic diversity exists within the species, and between it and several related species. I'm about ready to do something radical and weird like praying for good results(!).

Tomorrow we're going back to Estill Fork to see if we can find where the scarlet and telescope shiners are hiding. Sometimes I think we should start a striped shiner project just because we can always find bunches of them. Tomorrow should be a cold, dank day, but sunny. We've had a cold rain last night and into the morning, but it seems to have stopped.

And if you're flunking one of my classes, please don't ask me to change your grade just because you have personal problems or whatever. I guess I'm a conservative in my old age, just come to the damn class, read the assignments, and show up awake for the exams. Otherwise, it's "thanks for playing!".