DNA Barcoding

Overview

This activity explores forensic uses of DNA barcoding and DNA reference datasets. Students will walk through using online genomic reference databases and interpret their results within the framework of a forensic case study.

Duration: Approximately 1 hour (help us improve this estimate!)

Learning Objectives

Use online tools to compare sequence in fasta format to DNA barcoding reference databases.
Explore species identification via DNA barcoding.
Interpret DNA barcoding results within the framework of a forensic DNA investigation.

Prerequisites

Students will benefit from a basic understanding of genome organization and taxonomic classification, as well as some awareness of PCR and genomic sequencing methods. We suggest this activity could accompany lectures that discuss the genome or PCR methods.

Evaluation

GEMs is an NIH-funded program. Part of our mission is understanding the impact of our materials. Please take the time to review our program as an instructor after this activity. We also appreciate you distributing our survey to students before and after they participate in GEMs content.

Help us improve!

Instructor survey

Student pre-activity survey

Student post-activity survey

You can view our IRB approval here. Feel free to contact the GEMs team with any questions (gems at fredhutch dot org).

Materials

Student Activity

You can use this module in several formats. Feel free to adapt to your needs!

Web page
Word (docx)
Google Doc

Students will need:

A device that accesses the internet.
Access to the BOLD website: https://id.boldsystems.org/.
Access to BLASTn on the NCBI website: https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi
Ability to download toy data hosted at: https://genomicseducation.org/data/barcoding_devils_claw_rbcL.fasta