Association for Biology Laboratory Education

The Genomics Education Partnership(GEP): Undergraduate Student Analysis of Drosophila Genomes
 



Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2013, Volume 34

Julia A. Emerson, S. Catherine Silver Key, Consuelo J. Alvarez, Stephanie Mel, Gerard P. McNeil, Kenneth J. Saville, Wilson Leung, Christopher D. Shaffer & Sarah C. R. Elgin

Abstract

The GEP, a group of faculty from over 90 primarily undergraduate institutions, is using comparative genomics to engage students in research within regular courses. Using a versatile curriculum, GEP undergraduates undertake projects to improve draft genomic sequences and/or participate in the annotation of these improved sequences. An additional goal of the annotation curriculum is for students to gain a sophisticated understanding of eukaryotic gene structure. Students do so by carefully mapping the protein-coding regions of putative genes from recentlysequenced Drosophila species. This paper describes some ways in which the GEP's annotation tools have been adopted for use in undergraduate courses.

Keywords:  Drosophila, Genomics Education Partnership (GEP), gene annotation, eukaryotic gene

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2012)