I have done DNA extraction experiment using two bacterial strains and comparing 6 isolation methods, serial dilutions up to 8 folds of these bacterial strains were performed to identify at what level of bacterial cells we can isolate DNA? my question is, Does the serial dilutions consider as experimental repeat or I still need to perform another experiment including all the serial dilutions to measure to check reproducibility of the results?
Regards
Mohammed
Dear Mohammed,
You are asking several questions, all of them very interesting. There are no official rules about how many times experiments should be repeated to be reliable. However, the replication level of your experiments will have an impact on the statistical tests you can perform on your dataset (parametric or non-parametric tests, which do not have the same power!!!). Check this paper from DL Vaux, F Fidler and G Cumming: Replicates and repeats—what is the difference and is it significant? EMBO reports VOL 13 NO 4, 2012. You'll find some good information about what kind of replicated data you can use in your statistics!
Good luck with your experiments!
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