Practical Consideration of Molecular Biological Education Suited for Japanese Highschools

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Whilst molecular biological articles have been extensively described in high school-level textbook guidelined by MEXT, it is, however, commonly deemed to be practically difficult to perform molecular biological experiments in high schools. We herein report an ingenious protocol for molecular biological experiments best suitable for biology classes in Japanese high schools, comprising DNA extraction, DNA detection, PCR and agarose electrophoresis, all of which can be completed substantially within no more than two classes. In order to exploit the protocol, we cautiously cared the following points: sets of the experiments can be accomplished in typical period in high schools (50 minutes); and most of the listed experiments can be performed in standard high school facilities. For DNA extraction, “silica monolith” spin column (Animos Co. Ltd.) was employed, much facilitating and shortening the procedure (completed within ~10 minutes). DNA from rice powder (O. sativa) and flour (T. aestivum) was successfully detected by means of agarose electrophoresis, followed by PCR amplification by Taq polymerase reaction mixture (Quick Taq® HS DyeMix; Toyobo Co. Ltd.), targeted for RuBisCO small subunit gene through O. sativa specific primers. The amplification was confirmed by agarose electrophoresis, non-hazardously stained by Midori Green (Nippon Genetics Co. Ltd.). To further develop the experimental protocol, it is thought to be necessary not only to supply the equipment required for routine molecular biological experiments in the high schools, but also to manufacture either illustrated or visualised protocol, expecting for future facilitation of molecular biological learning in high schools.