Common Food Item Lab Report

Detection of GMOs in Common Food Items

Introduction: Genetically modified organisms have been altered to express a favorable characteristic that improves the product of a plant (Simms, 2017). Polymerase chain reaction is a three-step process that is used to create more copies of the DNA. According to Köppel, there are two PCR systems that can be used for GMO screenings. The most common system determines DNA contents from the CaMV 35S promoter and NOS terminator from the Agrobacterium tumefaciens bacterium (Koppel, 2014). Agarose gel electrophoresis uses an electrical charge to separate DNA by charge and size (Simms, 2017). The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether a food item was genetically modified based on the presence of the CaMV promoter sequence. The DNA was extracted from common food items, ran through PCR to multiply the DNA and analyzed using Agarose gel electrophoresis.

Materials and Methods: When extracting the DNA, two grams of each food item was weighed out in separate weigh

The sample comb was positioned at one end of the gel tray in the casting apparatus. A weigh boat was used to measure two grams of agarose. The agarose and 100 mL of 1X TAE buffer were added to the flask. The flask was covered and placed in a microwave for 180 seconds and removing the flask every minute to mix. Then used a 10 L micropipette to add 4 L of 10,000 X Gel Green. Allowed the gel to cool for 1-2 minutes. Poured 100 mL of 2% agarose solution into the gel tray and allow to solidify for 20-30 minutes at room temperature. The comb was removed from the gel to expose the sample wells then placed in the electrophoresis chamber. Enough of the 1X TAE electrophoresis buffer was added to the chamber to completely cover the gel. Using a micropipette, 10 L of the PCR product was loaded into the sample well. The lab instructor loaded two DNA ladders and ran the gel when all samples were