Antibody-Antigen Reaction in Agar:
Antigen-Antibody Reaction on right, Food Purity test on left.
Antigen-Antibody Reaction:
Recall from the last blog that this test was conducted with Bovine Albumin, Goat Anti-horse Albumin, Goat Anti-bovine Albumin, and Goat Anti-swine Albumin. Notice the white cloud surrounding the well farthest right in the picture above. In this well was Goat Anti-bovine Albumin. This reacted with the Bovine Albumin to form the cloud. The bovine antigen placed in the center well reacted with the bovine antibody. It did not react with the others because a bovine antigen will clearly not bind with a swine or horse antibody. If a different antigen were present (such as that of a horse or swine) the reaction would have occurred with the horse or swine antibody respectively.
Testing for Food Purity:
In this test we filled four wells with the following solutions: hamburger extract, Goat-Anti-horse Albumin, Goat Anti-bovine Albumin, and Goat Anti-swine Albumin. The purpose of the test was to indicate food purity based on the reactions that take place within the medium. Ideally, only bovine (the meat found in hamburgers) should be present in the hamburger meat extract. If this is the case, a cloud should only form around the Goat Anti-bovine serum. However, if the meat is not pure, a reaction would occur between the hamburger meat and the other Anti-serums. This could occur during cross-contamination in a slaughterhouse. Thankfully, there was only a reaction between the hamburger extract and the Goat Anti-bovine Albumin. This proves that the hamburger meat is pure and no contamination is present.
Thanks for a great lab Dr. P! :)
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