Biology

Dr. Rodney King recently attended a writing workshop at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) headquarters in Chevy Chase, MD, (June 11-13, 2017).  The workshop involved hands on training for publishing papers in “Genome Announcements”, a new online, fully open access journal published by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM).  As described on the ASM website, “the journal publishes short manuscripts announcing the availability of recently sequenced genomes of prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbes and viruses in public databases. These announcements inform readers of the availability of new genome sequences and provide the rationale for sequencing a particular organism, as well as details of the methodologies and protocols used in assembly of the genome sequence”.

Students who participate in the Genome Discovery and Exploration course at WKU are generating complete annotated genomes of the bacteriophages they discover. This unique, hands-on, inquiry-based program was initiated by the HHMI’s Science Education Alliance (SEA) and is designed to engage new undergraduates in the process of doing scientific research. Through their efforts in this year-long, course-based research experience, students ultimately contribute new information to the scientific community in the form of annotated viral genomes that are deposited in Genbank, the national DNA sequence database. Data generated by the Genome Discovery students has already been included in a number of scientific publications and publication in “Genome Announcements” will provide an additional mechanism to disseminate their data to the public.

For more information contact Dr. Rodney King (270) 745-6910, rodney.king@wku.edu or Dr. Claire Rinehart (270-745-6892), claire.rinehart@wku.edu