Poster: Education

Abs # 29: Connecting the classroom with primary research: molecular analysis of red clover genes

Presenter:	Thoma, Sharon L., sthoma@edgewood.edu
Authors	Thoma, Sharon L. (A)   Sullivan, Michael L (B)
Affiliations:	(A): Edgewood College (B): U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center

Students in an upper level cell and molecular biology course picked random plaques from a red clover leaf cDNA library, rescued the lambda clones to phagemids, isolated and characterized the resulting plasmid, and sequenced a portion of the cDNA insert. Students carried out BLAST searches of DNA and protein databases to determine possible identities of their clones. Three clones, corresponding to a psaH protein, ferredoxin 1, and an early light-induced protein were chosen for further analysis. For each clone, the entire sequence was determined and the expression pattern was analyzed via RNA blot analysis. Because red clover is not widely studied on the molecular level, these data are unique, and provide an opportunity for undergraduate students to publish data in electronic DNA databases and/or in peer-reviewed publications.