MEA 452

Genetics in Marine Science

Section: 001

Course Description

Genetics is an increasingly important tool for studying biodiversity from the individual to the community level across ecosystems. This course is an introduction to how DNA sequencing can be applied to questions in marine and aquatic environments. We will emphasize how DNA sequencing can be used for species identification, conservation, fisheries management, and sampling whole communities in marine or other aquatic environments. Students will explore the role of large biodiversity databases, museum collections, and how they are linked to DNA sequence data. Students learn to generate and analyze their own DNA barcoding data. We will particularly focus on the utility of DNA barcoding, environmental DNA (eDNA), and metabarcoding, though other topics may be discussed.