TRICK OR TREAT!!! Dr. Spangler was quite impressed with the guys' observation that the Gram stain seemed to have more to do with cytoplasmic components than it did with the cell envelope. While they discussed what experiments to do next, there was a pounding on the door. "MarvEEEn-, MarvEEEn Spangler! Nettie out here, let me EEn." A frizzy-haired ghost of an apparently self-educated woman shuffled in. "I got sum'in ta show ya, Marv. Wanna get ya's view befoe I make a fool of myself in fronta tha crowd tomorra." She told how she had some of the chemistry folks make up a polymer of synthetic DNA of which one strand read: ACGTACGTACGTŠŠACGT, and the other, of course, the complementary bases. "Lookie dis," she went on by describing how a little 14C-dideoxyATP plus ordinary dATP, dCTP, dGTP and TTP were added along with DNA-polymerase they got incorporation of the unusual radioactive variant of dATP (note: RNA is made from ATP, GTP, CTP and UTP; while DNA is made from dATP, dCTP, dGTP and TTP). "Then we 'lectroph'reest da mess, autoradiographed EEt and got dEEs:"
Meanwhile, back at the costume party, Mary Lou and Cheryl found themselves hotly pursued by the two Hawaiians and the "star" on a suit. The girls found a Goldie Locks and a Clown and made them an offer they didn't want to refuse. The four went into the ladies room for awhile and then came out. The pumpkin slices went off in one direction followed by the Hawaiians and the star. But not before a very merry Goldie Locks and a happy Clown grabbed the two Hawaiians and - Whee! - pretending to dance, whirled them around a couple of times - at least that's what the clown did. Goldie spun her guy around several more times before he broke away and dizzily stumbled over a chair trying to catch up with the disappearing pumpkin slices. "You sorta outdid yourself, Mary Lou," said the clown. "Oh, no I didn't. You oughta see what I got in my basket - I got his gun!" "What! Let's see it." But Mary Lou began running - out the door and towards their hotel. About a block later, Cheryl caught up with the intreped sophomore, and there under a street lamp they lifted Goldie's picnic napkin and saw the gun - ah - but with a great big "FBI" emblazoned on the grip!
Meanwhile, Prof. Bengston and the three students were totally enthralled by Dr. "Nettie" - from Columbia University. She went on to describe other "neat" experiments, as she called them.
But back on the Boardwalk: "What are we goin' to do, Cheryl?" "I think we've got to change our rooms. Hurry, run as fast as you can and follow my lead." The two girls, nearly breathless, walked up to the desk and told the attendant: "We'd like two rooms if you've got any available." "Ah, yes, we do. How many adults in each room?" "Two-, we're with our husbands - they're parking the car." Two C-notes came out of the purse, false names were signed in, and the girls slowly walked away. Soon two guys came along, and the girls waved at them, and pretended to follow them - until out of sight from the front desk. Then the girls bolted for the elevator. "Mary Lou, here's the card key for the guys' old room: get in there and clear everything out and move it to the room your new key fits, and stay there. I'll clean out our old room and move the stuff to our new one."
A few minutes later, Cheryl called Spangler's hotel and was connected to his room. "May I speak to Prof. Bengston? - Dr. B., we temporarily lost our pursuers on the other side of town. We've just gotten through running all the way back to the hotel, and moving all our stuff to two new rooms under false names. Mary Lou is waiting in your room to open the door for you guys - room 3219. Got it? See you soon." Cheryl, scared, sneaked over to where Mary Lou waited in the guys' room. It wasn't more than 10 minutes before the guys returned, and some interesting stories were told. And to add one more gun to their worries!
Wilbie and Jason, with totally compartmentalized male minds, soon were jabbering about Nettie's experiment using the radioactive ddATP. The girls and their prof were much more concerned for their safety - a knock might come at their door at any minute. Their luck would then run out! "You guys: jabber, jabber, jabber. On and on about ddATP! Why not ddGTP? Or ddCTP, or whatever?" Mary Lou then saw her chance, and sat down on the bed next to where Jimmy was dozing off.
"Jimmy-JIMMY! Get up! Look at this!" shouted Jason. Mary Lou's eyes rolled heavenward as her adventure in proximity was abruptly halted. (Story continued next week.)
Meanwhile-
What was Jason so excited about? How would the substitution of ddGTP for ddATP change the electrophoretigram? And ddCTP, etc.? Suppose you set each of the four ddXTP electrophoretigrams in parallel side-by-side. What would they look like? Significance?
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