Week Three

The third week of my senior research project I began larval turning for the larvae that were eating the high sugar food my team made the previous week. One interesting thing I noticed throughout larval turning was that the larvae eating the food with lower concentrations of sugar (1X, 2X) developed faster than those who were eating the food with higher concentrations (4X, 8X). I also learned which larvae are appropriate to collect for larval turning. The larvae has several stages of development, known as instars. The first instar is when they have just emerged from their eggs, but are still very small. The larvae that need to be used for larval turning are second instar larvae, when they have begun to grow and develop more. The last stage, the third instar, is right before the larvae begins to pupate, and these larvae are not good for larval turning because they are beginning to move slower and the pupa case is forming.

Another important thing I learned this week is the importance of communication in the lab. The larval turning needs to be done using a GFP (green florescent protein) scope, so that we can check to make sure that the cross was successful. If if was, the larvae will glow due to the GFP marker. But there is only one GFP scope in the lab, and I learned that just about everybody wants to use it, and that it is critical to properly communicate your plans to the rest of the lab so that they can also plan accordingly.

All in all it was a busy, interesting week. Hope everyone else's projects are going well.