Project:

Analysis of the Cattail Mosquito (Coquillettidia perturbans) Population in Suffolk County, NY

Students:

Eric Oldenborg, Giovanni Porrini-Fernandez

School:

Chaminade High School, Nassau

Mentors:

Karen Kuntz

Abstract:

For our Barcode project, we will be extracting and sequencing DNA from Coquillettidia perturbans (cattail mosquito) samples collected by the Suffok County Department of Health. The goal of our project is to continue the sample analysis of C. perturbans samples that has been done over the past few years by the Cold Spring Harbor DNA Learning Center as part of the Barcode Long Island program. We will examine whether the population of cattail mosquitoes in Suffolk County exists as one species or if cryptic species or subpopulations of this species exist within the main population. Cryptic species exist when one species is shown to actually be different species using DNA sequencing. We will examine the sequence of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI ) gene. DNA will be extracted from 20 C. perturbans samples obtained from the Suffolk County Department of Health, PCR will be used to amplify the COI gene, gel electrophoresis will be performed to determine if the PCR was succe

Poster:

Team samples: