Disclaimer: This is one of my favorite things from the entire summer, and words honestly do not compare to the experience. I will try to add lots of pictures so that you can get a better understanding.
On Monday I went to tour the Insect Transgenesis Facility in the Entomology Department at NCSU. Earlier in the summer when I was working with Sophia on cloning and molecular work for the GM mosquitoes, she told me about the actual process of inserting the DNA into the mosquito eggs. I looked at some pictures of the needle and she even showed me some of the needles that she had made for insertion. Unfortunately the actual machine was broken, so I did not get to see it in action. The lab manager emailed me a few weeks later and told me that everything was back up and running if I still wanted to do the tour. I jumped on the opportunity, but honestly it is not something that I often get an opportunity to work with.
The actual facility is one small room with four high powered microscopes and the actual “micromanipulator” that does the egg insertion.
Microscope with Filters to see Florescent Markers
Egg Insertion Microscope
In order to understand the process, I was shown the life cycle of the blowflies that we were working with. In the lab they raise generations of flies in lab to study the genome and the differences between the GM and Wild Type varieties.
After looking at the flies, the females had enough time to lay some eggs, which we took and lined up on a microscope slide.
Eggs laid by Blow flies during Lab
Eggs have to be inserted quickly after they are laid because of the speed of development. Inserting new genetic material has to happen before the first cells develop in the offspring.
The actual machine has a joystick and a foot pedal that let you accurately and quickly insert all of the line of eggs with the microneedle. When I tried, I realized the difficulty of quickly, but precisely inserting the eggs. It does not help to think that I was actually modifying the DNA of a living organism. As soon as I started thinking about that, it really made me be really careful and try not insert the needle to quickly or with air bubbles.
Before Inserting, Magnified 1600X
After Inserting, Magnified 1600X
After I had inserted the eggs, we looked at some of the flies with fluorescent markers. Most insects have markers to show that transformation of the added genetic material has joined with the organisms genome.
One of the cool differences that I was able to see with the fluorescent flies was the amount of color expression. Some of the flies were completely glowing, while other flies only had glowing eyes. The flies were the same species and they had been inserted with the same DNA, but the gene expressed differently in the two sets of flies.
As I was sharing about this experience, I commented that “this is genetic engineering in action”. From the education world, so many times topics like genetic engineering end up being theoretical because it is so difficult to mimic the practical application. Having this hands-on experience was enlightening to me, and really allowed me to understand the whole process of creating a transgenic organism.
Click here for more information about the Insect Transgenesis Facility at NCSU.