Finding Selection in All the Right Places: A College Genetics Laboratory Inquiry-Based Learning Exercise

This inquiry-based laboratory introduces students to evolutionary genetics using bioinformatics and biocuration. The exercise focuses on manual curation and analysis of genome sequences from closely related species. Students assess computationally-generated alignments and annotations of multiple genes from population genomic data sets; repair alignment errors; apply population genetic tests for natural selection; and finally, interpret the results and hypothesize about the nature of selective forces in the context of function information available for the genes.

Duke Scholars

Author Mohamed A. F. Noor Biology