Department of Biological Sciences is exhibiting at Kids' Tech University

Exhibitor Title- Why do corn plants produce toxic chemical?

Abstract- We are basically going to show kids how to extract and detect beta-glucosidase enzyme in corn plants. β-Glucosidase is a major defense enzyme in corn that produces a chemical, which is toxic to insects. Insects like European corn borer causes major damage to corn crop in United States and elsewhere. Briefly, kids will be given a microcentriguge tube containing corn plant tissue in powder form. They will then extract beta-glucosidase enzyme by adding and mixing with 1.0 ml of buffer. After spinning down, the clear supernatant will be used as a source of beta-glucosidase enzyme. In the enzyme assay, kids will mix 100 microliters of supernatant with 100 microliters of colorless substrate in a microtitre plate. After 5 min, they will arrest the reaction by adding 100 microleters of a alkali solution T. As soon as they add solution T they will see a yellow color.

Lead by- Dr. Dave Bevan and Mr. Hyun Young Yu