Microbial Genomics Laboratory
Course #: BIOL 365
Description:
This laboratory course, to be taken concurrently with BIOL 335, Genomics, provides a hands-on, inquiry-based, laboratory experience for undergraduate science majors. A bacterial model, Enterococcus, will be used to explore the diversity of the bacterium and some of its genes; and to test hypotheses about disease virulence and horizontal gene transfer in bacteria. Students will isolate metagenomic DNA and bacteria from the environment and learn basic microbiological methods (bacterial culture, aseptic technique, gram staining) and molecular biology methods (DNA purification/quantitation, PCR, gel electrophoresis, DNA sequencing). In the final portion of the course, students will use bioinformatics tools to analyze their data and submit a final research paper.
Pre Requisites: Pre-req: BIOL 210 OR BIOL 212 AND Pre-req: BIOL 252 OR BIOL 254 AND Pre-Req: BIOL 335 OR Co-Req: BIOL 335