Back to The Sourdough! Dir. by Joseph (De)Lewis

  This week, we'll be focusing on the research questions generated by our starters! Unfortunately, my starters are no longer alive and well ( pauses for a moment of silence), but we are still scientists, and we must continue to work!  So, the burning question on my reader's mind is probably "What should I have for lunch today?", but the question they should  be asking is "What is he sequencing exactly?"! Well, my dear patrons, we are sequencing the 16S (a portion of the ribosome of the cell) rRNA gene and the ITS region, not the entire genome of the starters! The rRNA genes we sequence encode the RNA amount of the 16S location on the ribosomes of bacterial cells, while the ITS region works much in the same way as fungal cells. A benefit of only sequencing these specific regions of DNA is that it enables a researcher to have an easier time sorting through potential differences and similarities between DNA by limiting the amount that one has to sort through. O

  Unfortunately I have been gone for too long! I had an unexpected passing in the family, but am just now continuing (from the week of 2/15) to catch up to the course and my classmates! Get ready for a ton of information and updates! Back in February, I took a week off from my starters to attend to the affairs of my family, and while I was away for these events, the starters unfortunately died off. Shortly before I left, however, the starters had not yet switched over to a 12 hour feeding period, but they had developed a film-like layer on the top of them. The starters had been growing for approximately two or three weeks at that point, and were being maintained on a constant schedule up until my break. When I came back, I tried to reinvigorate them, but it was to no avail and they were thrown out.  Talking about the rising rate experiments for the course, since my starters are now in sourdough heaven, I have been privileged enough to compile some of my classmates' data into a grap