This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Next-generation sequencing (NGS) studies have led to dramatic improvements in our understanding of human microbiomes. However, this method is based on the presence of DNA and cannot distinguish between living and dead microbes on its own. Environments like our skin are hostile and have high microbe turnover, which leads to significant amounts of DNA from dead microbes, which can lead to inaccurate community estimations in NGS studies. To overcome this, researchers tested the feasibility of pre-treatment with Benzonase to digest unprotected DNA. They used both mock bacterial communities and skin microbiome samples with inactivated bacteria or bacteria-free DNA spiked-in. Benzonase (BDA) pre-treatment reduced the levels of DNA from dead bacteria in both mock and natural communities. It also reduced the amount of host DNA in samples with high human-to-microbial DNA ratios without obvious impact on the microbial profile..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Metagenomic analysis frequently plays an important role in development pipelines for human fecal microbiome-related products, but validation and standardization of the methods used to extract DNA and assemble sequence libraries for these studies is currently lacking. To close this gap, researchers recently characterized existing protocols for accuracy and precision. First, they tested the quantification accuracy by using a defined mock community of bacteria. Then, the protocols that performed as expected were evaluated for both within- and inter-laboratory precision metrics. The protocols were also tested against the MOSAIC Standards Challenge samples. Lastly, they defined performance metrics for the recommended protocols to provide best-practice guidance. The uptake of the recommendations generated here should improve reproducibility in human metagenomic research and therefore facilitate development and commercialization of human microbiome-related products..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Biology is designed for multi-semester biology courses for science majors. It is grounded on an evolutionary basis and includes exciting features that highlight careers in the biological sciences and everyday applications of the concepts at hand. To meet the needs of today’s instructors and students, some content has been strategically condensed while maintaining the overall scope and coverage of traditional texts for this course. Instructors can customize the book, adapting it to the approach that works best in their classroom. Biology also includes an innovative art program that incorporates critical thinking and clicker questions to help students understand—and apply—key concepts.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Describe gel electrophoresisExplain molecular and reproductive cloningDescribe uses of biotechnology in medicine and agriculture

¿Podemos ver el ADN de un plátano a simple vista?En este experimento vamos a comprobar cómo mediante los procedimientos sugeridos podemos llegar a visualizar la cadena de ADN de un plátano. Para ello, sólo tenemos que seguir los pasos que se plantean a continuación.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The rapid expansion of microbiome science has revealed much about the roles of microbes in health and disease. But the diversity of experimental tools available has made the reproducibility of microbiome studies a serious issue. To minimize bias during DNA extraction, researchers recently developed and tested WC-Gut RR—a whole-cell reference reagent specific to the gut microbiome. Built using 20 strains commonly found in the human gut, WC-Gut RR was designed to evaluate DNA extraction protocols used in microbiome pipelines. Researchers tested WC-Gut RR using 8 commercial DNA extraction kits, which revealed significant differences in, among other things, DNA yield, integrity, and purity. In addition, findings revealed that less complex reagents that do not feature anaerobic and hard-to-lyse strains can inflate the performance of microbiome DNA extraction kits..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.