Citizen science corner| article
By identifying Wolbachia For arthropods, scientifically-minded citizens can help researchers collect samples of bacterial hosts.
About 20 years ago, Seth Bodensteina Pennsylvania State University biologist, and a group of scientists and science educators brainstormed ways to bring scientific research experiences into the classroom.
At the time, researchers studying arthropods often suspected that the organisms they studied had the following properties: Wolbachiaa bacterial endosymbiont present in half of the total arthropod.1 But since 7 million people are known, terrestrial arthropod speciesidentify new ones Wolbachia hosts was a huge independent effort by researchers.2 Bodenstein and his colleagues thought they could recruit students and science buffs to help with the job.
They devised the Discover the microorganisms inside your body! of Wolbachia projectThis is a 5-part research-based lab series. Wolbachia Bacteria.
as Wolbachia– Participants who are project scientists will be able to collect and identify arthropods in the surrounding area and develop hypotheses regarding whether bacteria are present in the specimens. Next, evaluate the existence of: WolbachiaAnalyze the DNA in your samples by performing polymerase chain reaction and gel electrophoresis experiments (reagents and rental equipment are provided with the program). Additionally, you can also submit samples for sequencing.
Participants will use the classification capabilities available at the National Center for Biotechnology Information to Wolbachia It exists in over 1,500 species of arthropods, and we shared our findings in the project. user database.
“We may think that what happens in ivory towers and university labs is difficult to translate. I hope that’s what it is. Wolbachia “The project we’ve been doing over the last 20 years is to show people that it’s much easier than it looks,” Bodenstein said. “And the rewards are much greater because you can impact tens or tens of thousands of people around the world than an experiment or publication that 100 people might read.”
Are you working on a citizen science project? Share your ideas with us.
