The Virtual Edge
 

Extra Credit for Unknown Report:

Instructions for using GenBank:

  1. After verifying the identity of your unknown with your TA, click on your unkown and download the 16S rRNA sequence. This is for your gram- unknown only.
  2. Copy the sequence.
  3. To search GenBank for sequence matches type in the url: http://www.ncbi.nih.gov/
  4. On the menu to the right entitled Popular Resources, select BLAST.
  5. Under the large heading entitled BLAST Assembled Genomes, click on the icon entitled microbes.
  6. Enter your query sequence in the space provided.
  7. Below the query sequence section there is a list of Domains. Scroll down and select Bacteria by hitting the + sign.
  8. Scroll back up and hit the BLAST icon to begin your search.
  9. On the next screen a request ID number will be displayed, to the right of that click on View report. It may take some time to generate the report.
  10. When the results screen appears, scroll down until you see the numbers in blue text. The begin with “ref” and are followed by a number.
  11. The top listed bacterium is the one with the greatest sequence match to your unknown. In order to receive full extra credit points, write down the full line of text including the reference #, genus and species name and score of the best sequence match. Does this match agree with your phenotypic identification?

Rachel Watson, M.S.
AG 5010
766-3524
Cell: 307-314-9636
rwatson@uwyo.edu