For the past weeks, I have been genotyping C. elegans mutants and performing P. aeruginosa killing assays. A busy day in the lab goes like this:
9:30 AM
- Start inoculating PA14 culture in 37°C walk-in
- Take out SK plates that were seeded with PAI4 the night before
- Meet with my mentor to ask her questions and/or discuss the results from previous experiments
10:00 AM
- Count animals: I usually record the number of worms that are alive or dead, matricides (infected hermaphrodites that are unable to form an opening necessary to expel eggs, so the eggs hatch inside them), and animals that are “gone” ( i.e. I cannot pick these worms from the plate. These worms are usually stuck on the wall, or are in the agar). This task usually takes approximately 40 – 45 minutes to do.
11:00 AM
- Review my schedule for the day with my mentor, and try to understand the purpose of the forthcoming tasks
- I ask more questions about concepts I don’t understand.
11:30 AM
- Leave for lunch, or watch the current World Cup game with those in my lab or those in the neighboring lab
12:10 PM
- Run q- PCR (The entire procedure takes approximately 31/2 hours to complete, including worm lysis and other preparatory procedures. However, the thermo cycler does most of the work.)
1:00 PM
- Count worms and record data
3:00 PM
- Prepare agarose gel for electrophoresis
3:30 PM
- Run gel with PCR sample
4:00 PM
- Capture image of the gel, analyze, and compare PCR products
5:00 – 5:50PM
- Count animals
- Transfer living animals to the SK plates that were taken out in the morning
6:00 PM
- Seed fresh SK plates with PAI4 culture
- Keep plates in the 37°C walk-in overnight
