we Have Clean Bifax DNA, And A Morning At Estill Fork

The big whoopie news is that Joe has been working with our Fundulus bifax DNA using the updated protocols from CleanGene, and we actually have good concentrations of amplified DNA bands cut from gels. There are 15 such cleaned samples, 10 bifax and 5 outgroups including F. catenatus and F. stellifer. I hope to get them sequenced soon (and how!).

I went to Estill Fork with Brittany and Josh today since it's the new moon. We ran the drift net in the slow, shallow current, and also netted telescope and scarlet shiners. This was Josh's first trip, he's signed on to do work this summer looking at gill parasites of black & tennessee snubnose darters which we also netted today. Here's a picture of Josh and Brittany as we were measuring water temperature and total dissolved solids.

Water level is low, and the emergent plants are growing out in what's often stream bed. Here's the view of the area we work in and catch fish, with the drift net installed in the right center of this shot.

I'm off next week, summer school begins the following Monday...