Development of a DNA Bar-coding Project as a Biology Laboratory Module

Abstract

This article is intended for faculty who are looking for new techniques for teaching a genetics or molecular ecology lab. We have used the bar-coding protocol for both a non-majors watershed ecology lab and a majors-specific genetics lab with equal success. The exercise involves extracting mitochondrial DNA from animal tissue, amplifying a portion of the mitochondrial DNA by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and sequencing the amplified DNA to determine the animal to the species level. Logistically, time spent on the DNA bar-coding procedure could be as short as 2–3 weeks or last an entire semester, depending on course outcomes and time availability.