Amelia Roebuck BIOL-L113 March 1, 2012 Independent Project Pre-Proposal How effective are various sunscreens in preventing mutagenic

effects of UV radiation? UV radiation is one of the leading causes of skin cancers, resulting in mutagenic effects in the skin cells. In order to prevent the damaging effects of UV radiation from the sun, sunscreen can be used to protect ones skin from UVB and UVA radiation. Because skin cancer is such a relevant concern, it is important to consider the following question: which sunscreens actually provide the most protection against mutagenic effects of UV radiation? The investigation will seek to answer this question by examining the effects of various sunscreens on cultures of yeast when exposed to UV radiation. The experiment will focus on testing cultures of yeast due to the fact that yeast is a haploid eukaryote and it is easy to cultivate in a lab setting. A culture of yeast with the trpl-289 allele will be used for mutagenizing. The purpose of this is to see if yeast cultures are still able to grow on Petri plates containing synthetic dropout medium (SDtrp-). If yeast cultures are still able to grow without tryptophan, then it follows that there has been a mutation from UV radiation and surviving mutants will be seen. Yeast suspension will be dispensed on Petri plates containing synthetic complete medium (SC) as a dilution since tryptophan is present and all surviving cultures will be seen. One plate of each SC and SD- trp- medium will be controls for no irradiation. The remaining SC and SD- trp- plates will be exposed to UV radiation at 50 seconds, each with a different sunscreen (one being no sunscreen) applied to the culture over saran

wrap. I predict that if a sunscreen of highest SPF available is used, then the least number of cultures of yeast will grow on Petri plates with SD- trp- because the most UV radiation will be blocked. On the Petri plates with SC, a consistent number of cultures will be seen because few cells will be killed from UV radiation as the sunscreen protects the yeast. List of Materials: Bakers yeast (saccharomyces cerevisiae) 10 SD- trp- agar plates 10 SC agar plates Short-wave UV lamp 5 Eppendorf tubes 1 tube of sterile water Glass spreader Beaker 95% alcohol Alcohol lamp Pipet P1000 Pipet P200 Saran Wrap Aluminum foil Sunscreens: SPF 8, SPF 15, SPF 30, and SPF 50 Stopwatch

Citations:

"Shining Light on Ultraviolet Radiation." Skin Cancer Foundation. Web. <http://www.skincancer.org/prevention/uva-anduvb/shining-light-on-ultraviolet-radiation>.