APES- Bushmeat DNA Blast Assignment
Backstory: Imagine you are working with conservationists in Cameroon. You want to
help them identify potential poachers and help them to enforce local poaching laws. You
need to identify which vendors are selling the poached meat but it is in pieces and hard to
identify the species by sight- what do you do?
Instructions:
1: Using the DNA Blast Program- http://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi
type in the DNA sequence into the nucleotide blast. Choose the “Nucleotide blast”.
Under Database, make sure to choose “other”.
2: Using the results from the blast, type the organism name into google to find out what
organism you have. (Common Name)
Sample #A62498: ____SITATUNGA___________________________
Sample #B77342: ____AFRICAN PORCUPINE___________________________
Sample #C79942: ____OLIVE BABOON___________________________
Sample #C80217: ____AFRICAN BUSH ELEPHANT___________________________
Sample #C90034: ____DRILL (PRIMATE)___________________________
Sample #D51210: ____WESTERN PRIMATE___________________________
Sample #G34176: ____PREUSS'S MONKEY___________________________
Sample #G54358: ____GREATER CANE RAT___________________________
Sample #H64991: ____WESTERN RED COLOBUS___________________________
Sample #I38722: _____PETER'S DUIKER__________________________
Sample #K28831: ____JENTINK'S DUIKER___________________________
Sample #N51683: ____BONGO__________________________
Conclusion: Why is it important to know the genome of an organism? How does it help
us to identify endangered and threatened species?
It is important to know the genome of an organism to be able to identify the DNA of unknown material. It helps us identify endangered and threatened species since science is able to identify if they are being killed and it also helps the animal since we are able to track down the hunters of these amazing species and save them from extinction.
Backstory: Imagine you are working with conservationists in Cameroon. You want to
help them identify potential poachers and help them to enforce local poaching laws. You
need to identify which vendors are selling the poached meat but it is in pieces and hard to
identify the species by sight- what do you do?
Instructions:
1: Using the DNA Blast Program- http://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi
type in the DNA sequence into the nucleotide blast. Choose the “Nucleotide blast”.
Under Database, make sure to choose “other”.
2: Using the results from the blast, type the organism name into google to find out what
organism you have. (Common Name)
Sample #A62498: ____SITATUNGA___________________________
Sample #B77342: ____AFRICAN PORCUPINE___________________________
Sample #C79942: ____OLIVE BABOON___________________________
Sample #C80217: ____AFRICAN BUSH ELEPHANT___________________________
Sample #C90034: ____DRILL (PRIMATE)___________________________
Sample #D51210: ____WESTERN PRIMATE___________________________
Sample #G34176: ____PREUSS'S MONKEY___________________________
Sample #G54358: ____GREATER CANE RAT___________________________
Sample #H64991: ____WESTERN RED COLOBUS___________________________
Sample #I38722: _____PETER'S DUIKER__________________________
Sample #K28831: ____JENTINK'S DUIKER___________________________
Sample #N51683: ____BONGO__________________________
Conclusion: Why is it important to know the genome of an organism? How does it help
us to identify endangered and threatened species?
It is important to know the genome of an organism to be able to identify the DNA of unknown material. It helps us identify endangered and threatened species since science is able to identify if they are being killed and it also helps the animal since we are able to track down the hunters of these amazing species and save them from extinction.