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12 February, 2007 | No comments

DNA Barcoding

DNA Barcoding is a kind of science slang for using PCR to amplify the equivalent stretch of DNA in a bunch of organisms and then using it to compare their relatedness. Usually the DNA that is selected for amplification is chosen because it is both informative and easy to amplify… with the same primers used in all the amplifications.

The approach has proven quite useful when analysing “cryptic species” or species that otherwise require expert identification. The Mytilus sp. complex we look at falls into that category - very few people can tell the adult forms apart except by DNA analysis. I used AUDACITY (the software Robertta and Kalpesh demo’ed) to extract a nice mp3 from this Heredity podcast which I have provided here:

Heredity Podcast on DNA Barcoding (Abridged) - August 2006

Heredity Journal article to accompany podcast (PDF)

Heredity Journal website

 

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11 February, 2007 | 1 comment

A Flickr Website for Sharing and Discussing Our Photos

We have set up a website with almost unlimited storage to organize, share, and discuss the photos we take in lab. We hope you will be able to use them in your classroom.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marinebiotech

If you have a question or a comment about a photo, just write it in the comment box and one of us will attempt an answer.

If you have photos to share, burn them to a CD and send them to:

Henrik Kibak, 100 Campus Center, Seaside CA 93955

 

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11 February, 2007 | No comments

A YouTube Site for Sharing and Discussing Our Videos

We have set up an experimental YouTube site for sharing and discussing the videos we develop during our workshops.

http://www.youtube.com/user/marinebiotech

Hopefully we will soon have a variety of videos describing biotechnology and bioinformatics lab proceedures.

Meanwhile enjoy the four that are up there now…

 

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11 February, 2007 | No comments

Mollusc Migrations!

It turns out that land snails can travel enormous distances in order to confound biologists. This discovery has implications for speciation as well as invasions.

Heredity Podcast on Mollusc Migrations (Abridged) - July 2006

Heredity Journal article to accompany podcast (PDF)

Heredity Journal website