Quentin: pipetting master

Name: Quentin VanHoose

Class Year: Senior - Class of 2018

Hometown: Waynesville, Ohio

Internship: National Research Foundation Intern

Location: National Zoological Gardens of South Africa, Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa

Hello from one of the zoo’s scimitar-horned oryxes (Oryx dammah)!

            A longtime-no-see to everyone from the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa! I apologize for not updating you all on my time here in the beautiful country of South Africa, but the Tech Gods have not shone brightly on during my time here! I have had quite the number of internet connection and personal computer problems since I have been here, and that has really hindered my ability to get a proper, coherent blog post together.

            As well, if I am to be honest, I have held off on writing a blog update too prematurely, just in case I ever have something new or exciting to tell you guys all about! One thing that I have learned during my time here in the Conservation Genetics research labs is that lab work is very repetitive! No matter what lab technique or procedure you are conducting, from extracting DNA from blood samples, to performing a PCR, to preparing to analyze your PCR products, you are essentially just pipetting substances from one tube to another, over, and over, and over again! That said, I was really hoping to have some new and different experiences under my belt before I updated you all on how things have been going! [Side Note: As someone who never really got along with the pipettes when working with them in labs for classes at Otterbein, I have become particularly efficient at it during my time here… Practice really does make perfect!]

            One of the more interesting lab experiences I have gotten over the past couple of weeks was having the opportunity to help one of the research assistants, Sonia, prepare black wildebeest tissues samples for DNA extractions. As with the roan antelope that I am working with on my project (more on that later!), a major issue in South Africa at the moment is hybridization between the once nearly extinct black wildebeest and the much more common blue wildebeest. Here at the Conservation Genetics research labs at the National Zoo, we conduct genetic tests to determine whether or not a specific animal is a hybrid or not, so that management decisions can be made to prevent further hybridization. All-in-all, we had a total of 250 tissue samples from the black wildebeest population at the Golden Gate National Park, so Sonia and I spent a total of three days sorting through them and cutting little slivers of flesh off of the whole tissue sample for extraction. It is tedious work, but it so interesting to see the process of how DNA is extracted from these half-dry chunks of flesh collected from biopsy darts.

Black wildebeest (Connochaetes gnou) tissue samples being prepared for DNA extraction.

A whole black wildebeest (Connochaetes gnou) at Amakhala Private Game Reserve in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape.

           

 Now, I have mentioned my project, so how exactly is it going, you might ask? Well, it is going! I have worked for several weeks to optimize the primers and TLR markers that I will be using to compare the immune system diversity of the 40 different roan populations to the population at the zoo’s Mokopane Biodiversity Conservation Centre, and I have created the 11 “Master Mixes” containing all of those optimized primers, pipetted them into 451 PCR tubes, added DNA from my 41 samples to the tubes, and ran their PCRs… So I am so very close to being able to see and analyze my results! Unfortunately, we have hit a roadblock of sorts because the labs are currently out of the reagent needed to analyze the PCR products, so no one, including myself, can actually analyze their work until it arrives. Everyone keep their fingers crossed that it arrives before I leave South Africa on 02 August!

            For the past month and a half, I have been living here at the on-site research accomodation all by myself, but last week two vet students from Barcelona, Spain have arrived and have been staying here with me. After spending so much time alone for so long, it has been wonderful having them around to talk to! This past weekend, one of them, Emma, and I decided that we wanted to go out and see some of the things that there are to do in Pretoria; this was something that I was very excited for because without any form of transportation, I have spent all of my weekends thus far walking around the zoo! Unfortunately, many of the things to do in Pretoria are closed on Sunday, so after looking around, we decided to visit the Union Buildings and the Voortrekker Monument.

            The Union Buildings are where South Africa’s parliament is held, so they truly where everything happens for the country - making them quite special to see, I think! They are absolutely stunning buildings and are surrounded by equally stunning gardens, with a giant statue of late former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela; with everything that Nelson Mandela symbolizes for the country, being able to stand before this monument to this amazing man was quite incredible!

Just look how beautiful the Union Buildings are!

The awe-inspiring Nelson Mandela statue.

            From there, we made our way out to the outskirts of Pretoria, where the Voortrekker Monument is located. The Voortrekkers were the early Afrikaner pioneers here in South Africa, the descendents of the Dutch people who first colonized South Africa. That said, I will openly admit that I was very hesitant to visit the monument given what the Voortrekker movement meant for the course of South African history, much of which is dark and filled with colonialism, racism, and persecution. Now that being said, I also have to say that it is a truly amazing building. Every carving, every brick, every window, every garden is absolutely beautiful, and the view of the city of Pretoria from the top of the monument is absolutely breathtaking (in both a beautiful and terrifying way!). No matter how beautiful or how interesting, I still could not get the knot out of my stomach the whole time I was there.

The truly impressive structure that is the Voortrekker Monument.

And the even more impressive view from the top!

Well folks, that is about all I have for you for now, but I have a couple of exciting things lined up for the remainder of my time here in South Africa, and I am very much looking forward to sharing them with you! Between finally analyzing the results of my research and a weekend trip to Cape Town, there should be a lot to share!