joan@uncmed.med.unc.edu (11/09/90)
Hello folks. I need a karyotyping procedure applicable for a small undergraduate university genetics class. The procedure should be relatively cheap to do and basic enough for undergraduates with limited experience to carry out. This information is for my undergraduate advisor. Come on, this is your chance to help out a small rural college in the wilds of Maine! Not to mention help college students find the joy in studying genetics. Thanks. Joan Shields UNC-CH
emigh@ncsugn.ncsu.edu (Ted H. Emigh) (11/10/90)
In article <1567@beguine.UUCP> joan@uncmed.med.unc.edu () writes: >Hello folks. > >I need a karyotyping procedure applicable for a small undergraduate >university genetics class. The procedure should be relatively cheap to do >and basic enough for undergraduates with limited experience to carry out. >This information is for my undergraduate advisor. Come on, this is your >chance to help out a small rural college in the wilds of Maine! Not to >mention help college students find the joy in studying genetics. > >Thanks. > >Joan Shields >UNC-CH We include a human karyotyping lab in our Basic Genetics Lab. While it is not too difficult to do, you must be very careful of the ethical decisions involved. Our setup is easy, mainly because there are people on campus who do this for a living, and we are able to use their containment areas. We have a written protocol which I can send to anyone interested. Now, on to some of the ethical problems: 1) The best karyotyping is done with whole blood, preferably NOT pin pricks. There is a real possibility of the blood coming with HIV or hepatitis. We are EXTREMELY careful of our handling of the blood. The fixatives will kill anything, so the completed slides are OK. The drawn blood is tested for HIV and hepatitis, but there is always a chance of a false negative. 2) In the past, we had students karyotyping their own cells. We have stopped this. We now use a single female and male -- both who have had normal children. The reason we stopped using student cells was the problem of discovering students with nonnormal karyotypes -- XYY, balanced translocations, XY females, etc. We could not take the risk of a student discovering her/his "abnormal" karyotype without the benefits of genetic counseling. 3) Local Human Subjects Committees may have restrictions which could axe the experiment. --Ted--
eesnyder@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Eric E. Snyder) (11/11/90)
In article <6020@ncsugn.ncsu.edu> emigh@ncsugn.UUCP (Ted H. Emigh) writes: >We have a written protocol which I can send to anyone interested. > >Now, on to some of the ethical problems: >The reason we stopped using student cells was the problem >of discovering students with nonnormal karyotypes -- XYY, balanced >translocations, XY females, etc. We could not take the risk of a student >discovering her/his "abnormal" karyotype without the benefits of genetic >counseling. Do these abnormalities occur at a sufficiently high frequency to justify this decision or it is a result of the paranoia inspired by our litigious society? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- TTGATTGCTAAACACTGGGCGGCGAATCAGGGTTGGGATCTGAACAAAGACGGTCAGATTCAGTTCGTACTGCTG Eric E. Snyder Department of MCD Biology We are not suspicious enough University of Colorado, Boulder of words, and calamity strikes. Boulder, Colorado 80309-0347 LeuIleAlaLysHisTrpAlaAlaAsnGlnGlyTrpAspLeuAsnLysAspGlyGlnIleGlnPheValLeuLeu ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ms5h+@andrew.cmu.edu (Marci Swede) (11/11/90)
When I was an undergrad we did a Karyotype in our genetics lab. I can get you the exact details, but for now, this is what i remember. We scraped the inner cheek with a tooth pick to obtain cells. These were placed on a slide and the chromotin was dyed (i can't recall the dye). The cells were then photographed and a standard karyotype was performed. I'll get you the full protocol soon. Where in Maine are you?