An Investigative Case-Based Approach to Phylogenetic Analysis

Educational tools to engage undergraduate students in phylogenetic analyses of microbial communities.

Use 16S rDNA sequence analysis.

A variety of case settings related to Microbial Ecology.

Rafael Tosado-Acevedo & Filipa Godoy-VitorinoInter American University of Puerto Rico, Metropolitan

Campus

Investigative CasesHost-microbe relationships in the gut

microbiome. La Chenchena (Hoatzin), a ruminant bird

Commensal relationships between plants and microbes in the soil. Rhizosphere microbes and legumes.

Use of Freely Available Web-Based Tools and Databases

To obtain the necessary sequence data from soil and animal gut microbiomes, and for building and analyzing phylogenic trees.

NCBIGreengenesSILVAPhylogeny.frQIIME

ActivitiesStudents obtain sequences from different

databases, align them, perform quality control for their alignments, perform phylogenies under different models of evolution and interpret their data.

With large 16S rDNA datasets students have a first contact with high-throughput sequence analyses.

Analyses of alpha and beta diversity.

www.caseitproject.org