Kristopher Blee

Research Interests:

• Plant-microbe Interactions
• Plant Defense
• Symplastic Continuity

CURE-E Course: Principles of Cellular and Molecular Biology (BIOL 162), first introduced with CURE-E in Fall 2020

Project Title: Understanding Eukaryotic Genes

This project trains and enables students to annotate (identify protein coding genes and describe products of their expression) the genomes of organisms whose genomes have been sequenced. Because it has been estimated that roughly 40% of the protein coding genes from an organism are of unknown function, identifying and describing the location of protein coding genes for an organism whose genome has been sequenced is a novel contribution.  Much promise is held in attempts to identify genes and their function.  

In each module or week of the CURE-E, students will be using an experimentally supported model from one organism to identify and describe the presence and functioning of any gene present in similar DNA sequence from closely related species whose genome was recently sequenced. Students will work in small groups of 2 to 3 students while they use evidence from an existing gene model to examine and possibly define the existence of a similar gene in a fragment of DNA closely related in sequence.

This project will consist of five learning modules with students completing one module per week. These five modules occur during the last five weeks of the semester.