Analyze your data

What will students do in this lab?

Students will learn about bioinformatics, the field of genetic data analysis. Then they will analyze your DNA sequence data and determine if the actual ingredients in their supplement appear to match those on the label.

Learning goals

By the end of this unit, you should be able to describe

  • FASTA and FASTQ format for DNA sequence data

  • BLAST and Genbank

  • what a read pair is

  • how our DNA sequence data were analyzed

You will analyze your DNA sequence data by

  • BLASTing it against Genbank, and identifying the most similar DNA sequences

  • Interpreting RDP classifier output

  • Inspecting plots produced by Krona

You should be able to

  • determine if your data are reliable

  • determine what species are most likely to be in your supplement

  • determine whether species identified by sequencing match those on the supplement label


Video: DNA sequence analysis

Watch this video to learn what bioinformatics is, and to learn how you will use it to analyze your DNA sequence data

Review sheet: Bioinformatics terms and concepts

Read this to to remind yourself about important bioinformatics terms and concepts introduced in the videos. These terms will be used in Instructions: DNA sequence analysis and discussed in the Lecture Video: Bioinformatics

Read this file before proceeding with the Instructions for data analysis

Video: How to analyze your data

Watch this for step by step instructions on how to analyze this data.

I recommend watching this and analyzing your data along with the video.

If you need more details or anything is unclear, check the Instructions: DNA sequence analysis.

Remember to record your data in Assignment: DNA sequence analysis as you work through this.

Instructions: How to analyze your data

Watch the Lecture Videos above and read Bioinformatics Terms and Concepts.

Then, follow these instructions to analyze your DNA sequence data.

As you work through the analysis, answer the questions in Assignment: DNA sequence analysis

If you have questions not answered in this tutorial, rewatch the Lecture Videos or check Bioinformatics Terms and Concepts

DNA sequence data

Here is the data from DNA sequencing. Download these files, unzip them, and analyze the data according to instructions in Instructions: DNA sequence analysis

Assignment: DNA sequence analysis

Answer these questions as you work through the Instructions: DNA sequence analysis and analyze your DNA sequence data

All of the answers that you provide here should included in the Results or Discussion section of your paper.

Refer back to your answers in this assignment when you are writing the Results and Discussion of your paper.

Herbal supplement ingredients

If you obtained herbal supplements from us, the ingredients should be listed here.

If you sequenced your own supplement, you should have taken a picture of the ingredients and submitted it on Blackboard. If it's not still on your phone, check Blackboard Gradebook.