High Schooler Gabriel Rocha, Son of Co-authors, Helps with Fish's Genetic Sequencing (IMAGE)
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"The team effort between our museum's scientists and aquarium biologists helped add a new fish to the tree of life," says Rocha, adding that the collaboration isn't the only reason this fish discovery feels particularly special. "My teenage son Gabriel helped sequence its genes during a summer internship -- his mother and I helped show him how to use complicated genomic processes to take a closer look at the fish's DNA. This is part of how we prove a species is distinct, and it's always a pleasure to share that learning with young people." Gabriel Rocha, a high school sophomore at the time, helped sequence the mitochondrial DNA cytochrome oxidase I gene, also known as the "barcode" gene. The process from DNA extraction to amplification and sequencing takes just a few days -- an ideal project for short, in-depth internships.
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© 2016 Luiz Rocha and the California Academy of Sciences
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