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Sinha  Lab  2012  

Department  of  Plant  Biology  

Tomato  Genome  Outreach  2012  

Week   Topic  1   General  Plant  Biology  2   Bacterial  Methods  

3  Sequencing    DNA/PCR  

4   RNAseq    

5  Sun  Shade  project  overview  Data  Collection  Projects  

6   Fluorescence  Microscopy    7   Bioinformatics  and  “R”  8   Phylogeny    9   Presentation  Prep  10   Presentation  &  Reports  

Internship  Module  

“I  learned  the  importance  of  the  need  of  research  and  how  statistical  analysis  is  useful  to  decipher  our  data  and  results.    I  learned  the  importance  of  always  continuing  and  furthering  one’s  education”    ~  A.  Ferguson  (2012  Summer  Intern)  

Tomato  Genome  Project  

About  this  project  Plants acquire the bulk of their energy from light capture by leaves, and leaf shape has direct consequences on the efficiency of light capture and photosynthetic carbon fixation. As a result, leaf shape must be optimized in response to variation in light quality. To understand the genetic programs controlling fundamental developmental processes, genetic networks regulating both environmental response and morphological form must be integrated. This proposal uses a genomics approach to understand natural variation in leaf morphology and light response, and to investigate the mechanism by which these two genetic networks are integrated to ensure optimal developmental pattern.  

Outreach  Program  

The final three weeks of the program are devoted to the set-up, data collection and analysis of a large-scale experiment. A final report covering the whole internship is written where students can use their improved scientific writing skills to bring together the themes of the following weeks and present their ideas

Towards the end of the final week, the students are given guidance in how to prepare and give presentations. These are subsequently given at a seminar attended by the whole group. The aim of this internship is to give students training in a wide variety of laboratory techniques, general biological principles, scientific writing and presentation skills. These skills can then be applied to their studies as well as any future lab placements or internships. By working alongside and interacting with all members of the group from UC Davis Undergraduates, graduate students, post-docs and PIs, students are able to gain a valuable insight in the day-to-day workings of a lab and life in academia  

As part of this project we have implemented an Internship program where each summer four students from the California State University and local community colleges are invited to work in our labs. These students hail from under-represented backgrounds and receive training in a wide variety of laboratory techniques, general biological principles, scientific writing and presentation skills. For the first seven weeks of the internship students are taught a wide variety of lab techniques including PCR, cloning and GUS staining as well as computational methods such as statistics and sequence analysis. For each of these weeks, one of the members of the Sinha/Maloof labs is responsible for mentoring the students; introducing them to a topic, running a wet or dry lab practical and assigning written work for the week. This written work, most often in the form of a lab report, is then marked and the students are given feedback.

Outreach  Program  (cont’d)  

To apply for this annual summer program, please send your CV, copy of your transcripts and a one page document describing your expectations from this internship to our project manager Kristina Zumstein at kmsarte@ucdavis.edu.

Applications close on March 30th each year.  

Tomato  Genome  Project