FA!

No, not a long long way to run. (I'll wait for people to get that. Got it? Good.)

FA stands for farnesoic acid, and I've been running it in the lab to make sure that what I'm looking at in my snow crab hemolymph truly is methyl farnesoate (MF) and not FA. (Remember, MF is a crustacean reproductive hormone. I'm hoping to quantify levels of MF in various groups of snow crab males to see how the terminal molt affects their reproductive physiology.)

FA is the precursor to MF. See how similar they look?

two sesquiterpenoids: MF (top) and FA (bottom)

see how they compare to the insect juvenile hormone III here

For more fun, long, sciencey words: MF comes from FA through the methylation of the latter, which is catalyzed by farnesoic acid O-methyltransferase (FAMeT)! Thrilling I know.

The good news is, after running different levels of FA through the HPLC, I am ever the more confident in my MF results! Yay for anagrams, and yay for me!

And the winner is:

Whoa, not that fast!

Last week I challenged you to come up with a new phrase for the acronym HPLC to replace High Performance Liquid Chromatography (what I'm using to quantify levels of methyl farnesoate in my male snow crabs). I received a lot of really clever and fun phrases, and it was really hard to choose. Here are some of my favorites:

His Pancreas Loves Cabbage

I thought I was the only one who loves cabbage,

but Joel set me straight.

Hot ParaLithodid Crab

I hope I represented Jen's vision correctly:

"a picture of a blue king crab (Paralithodes platypus) in those Alexander McQueen lobster shoe things

that Lady Gaga wore, being chased by photographers"

Harry Potter's Love Child

Poor Ron.

Hypercapnic Plankton Lacking Calcium

I was very impressed with this phrase, both for its

use of the word "hypercapnic" and its scientific accuracy.

Horned Parasaurolophuses Love Conifers

My neice loves dinosaurs (dare I say it) more than I love crabs!

The parasaurolophus is said to have been the loudest dino,

hence the enthusiastic remark.

Humongously Parasitized Lithodid Crabs

This lithodid has one heck of a rhizocephalan infestation!

Homely Pixies Lurk in Canada

HAHAHAHA! Oh, Canada...

my neighbor to the east, really.

Without further ado, the winner is:

Hiphopopotamus produces lyrical conception...

"Sea Lion Woman" went above and beyond with this HPLC poem inspired by

Flight of the Conchords! (warning, there's 1 swear in that video)

Read the whole poem in the previous blog's comments.

(baby picture from fanpop.com)

Congratulations Sea Lion Woman! Your creativity just earned you a new keychain!

Thank you to all who submitted!

H to the P to the L to the C

KEY CHAIN GIVEAWAY!!

My life has become focused around my HPLC = High Performance Liquid Chromatography.

the HPLC, in all its glory

It's what I'm using to quantify levels of methyl farnesoate in my male snow crabs. (Read more about it here, here, and here.) I'm using the methods from Borst and Tsukimura, 1991; this means that each sample takes a few minutes to run in order to get peaks that tell me how much methyl farnesoate was in each hemolymph sample (more on that later).

So with all this time on my hands, I've been coming up with different phrases for the acronym HPLC:

Hairy Prawns Love Conditioner



Horace Pilfered Lucy's Cup

So here's where the giveaway enters:

Come up with a great phrase for HPLC and win this adorable crab keychain!!

cute glass bead and wire-woven key chain,

purchased at the Southeast Waffle Company, Juneau

The Deal:

1. Comment on this post with your HPLC phrase (let's keep it family-friendly).
2. I would say one entry per e-mail, but I don't want to limit any creative juices, so have at it with as many clever phrases as you can come up with!
3. Giveaway closes: Sunday March 27th at midnight Alaskan time
4. One winner will be chosen by me based on creativity and amount of laughter it brings my day.
5. Prize ships: Anywhere! So if Lindsay in Australia and Kat in England and Kasey in Puerto Rico come up with anything, they are eligible!
6. (I don't want to strong-arm anyone into becoming a follower, so that won't be a factor. But I would appreciate it if you were a follower nonetheless. Thanks!)

Good luck! You could be this happy in the near future:

Boo, admiring the hand-crafted excellence of your future key chain



Borst, D. W., and B. Tsukimura. 1991. Quantification of methyl farnesoate levels in hemolymph by high-performance liquid chromatography. Journal of Chromatography 545: 71-78.