Re: [RML] New Guinea Rainbowfishes

peter.unmack at ASU.Edu
Thu, 27 Mar 1997 10:26:53 -0700 (MST)

On Thu, 27 Mar 1997, Andrew Boyd wrote:
> At 03:30 PM 3/26/97 -0700, Peter U. wrote:
> >On Thu, 27 Mar 1997, Andrew Boyd wrote:
>
> There's always one ;) OK, what is the discrepancy between the 10 grand that
> some sceintists say DNA testing will cost and the "next to nothing" that
> others have quoted? If it is cheap why don't more people do it? I know that
> the results are highly plastic and open to manipulation, you have told us
> this in the past ;)

We, if you're going to set up a lab it costs big bucks. If you have to
figure out your primers to study the fish it takes a lot of time. If you
already have the primers figured out it is a piece of cake relative to
the rest of it all. Where the lab is in regards to those steps
determines cost to a large degree. If someone is already running
rainbowfish, then to slot in a few samples is relatively easy and quick,
thus also cheap. That's basically it for some particular DNA tests, then
there is also electrophoresis which tends to be cheaper and quicker again
to set up and do. The results are not really plastic or
open to manipulation otherwise it would not be very scientific. How one
interprets the results and analyses them is where discrepencies come into
it. Anyway, that's Harro's pet pieve, not mine. :-)

Tootles

Peter Unmack