The FGSC is now making available Vogels 50X salts both with and without nitrogen. We also have ignite for use with the bar gene in Neurospora. This was concentrated using the protocol of Hays and Selker from commercially available herbicide. Please contact the FGSC for details

We received a group of Aspergillus niger mutants from the collection of Dr. E. Kafer. Please contact the FGSC for information on the availability of these strains.

Today is the 'Biofeed 2005' at the UMKC School of Biological Sciences. We will gather for a pot-luck lunch with other members of the School. As the School has a very international flavor, the food should be exceptional.

5/18/05

We have received amplified aliquots of two genomic libraries for Aspergillus fumigatus. The libraries were produced in Greg May's lab at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and are described in Arch Microbiol (2004) 182: 346–353. They were amplified by Jaehyuk Yu at the University of Wisconsin. The two libraries are in the vector pRG3-AMA-NotI. We titred them at the FGSC and found that the 4-9Kb library contained 7.5 X 10⁹ cfu/ ml and the 9 Kb+ library contained 3.6 X 10⁹ cfu/ml. We can distribute them as 250 ul aliquots of E. coli cells frozen in glycerol.

In other news, the University of Missouri System President, Dr. Elson Floyd, has expressed his support for keeping UMKC in the UM system.

5/13/05

Friday the thirteenth! For those of you who have a different cultural heritage, Friday the thirteenth is bad luck to some people.

The so-called evolution hearings are over, for now, in Kansas. Two leaders of the group that wish to open the teaching of science to include super-natural explanations had to admit that they had not actually READ the full science standards that they were seeking to usurp.

We have received two Ashbya strains from Peter Philippsen at Biozentrum, University of Basel. One strain, NRRL Y-1056= ATCC 10895=CBS 109.51, has been given the FGSC number 9923. This is the strain used for the Ashbya genome which is described in Science 304:304-307. The second strain, FGSC 9924, is a delta-leu2 delta-thr4 derivative of 9923.

5/5/05

I had a discussion a few days ago with the mother of one of my daughter's friends. She is very much against genetic engineering and argued vehemently that we were being cavalier in our approach to the use of genetic engineering in agriculture. I tried to explain that the technology was being readied for widespread use in countries that did not have the luxury of food surpluses and that to bow out only meant that we could neither benefit from the technology or guide its development. Her unwillingness to accept any argument in favor of the technology reminded me of the intelligent design arguments that are sweeping through Kansas. As hard as I tried to explain that people have been genetically engineering plants since the first people domesticated crops and that what was being done with genetic engineering technology today was much more targeted and direct, I could make no head-way and we ended up agreeing to disagree.

5/3/05

Kansas is undergoing some serious soul searching this week pertaining to whether to redefine 'science' to include supernatural explanations. Many scientists are voicing their opposition to this potential change.

My personal opinion? This too shall pass. After all, it took the church 350 years to apologize to Galileo.

Kansas from space.