Project:

The use of DNA Barcoding for validation of species of local ants collected in the courtyard of West Babylon Senior High School

Students:

Kayla Joseph, Jayden Cicero, Jack O'Daugherty, Simone Inkpen

School:

West Babylon Senior High School, Suffolk

Mentors:

Andrea Durbin

Abstract:

The goal of our project is to figure out what species of ants are living amongst our courtyard by both inspecting the ant itself physically and extracting the DNA to determine whether our original identification was correct. However, it is important to look at the DNA of the ants we want to identify rather than just looking at them because most ants look extremely similar, so it is extremely difficult to accurately decide its species just by looking at it. There are many different types of ants on Long Island, the most common ones are Carpenter ants, Acrobat ants, Argentine ants, Citronella ants, Little black ants, Pharaoh ants, Thief ants, Field ants, Pavement ants, and Odorous ants, but according to scientist, there may be over 20,000 undiscovered ant species. To find the DNA of these ants, we will be using the Chelex method to extract the DNA, this also purifies it so further methods work better. We will use the PRC method to amplify the DNA, then we will use gel electrophoresis to

Poster:

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