Annotation of a Reported Sasquatch Gene Locus Tag >KJ607607.1

Advisor: Lon Knappenberger

Student Researchers: Cailei Culver-Fisk and Danielle Jafarjian

Abstract: In the July 2, 2014 issue of the Journal of the The Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Science Volume 281, Issue 2014.0161, Sykes, Mullis, Hagenmuller, Melton, and Sartori conducted a comprehensive genetic survey of 57 individual and museum collected specimens to explore their identity. The purpose of this project was to verify the claims of the owners of the samples regarding the existence of Sasquatch or Bigfoot. Sequences cited in the article are stored in GenBank. Nucleotide BLASTs were conducted of the sequences versus various genera. Multiple sequence alignments and phylogenetic trees were constructed comparing the sequence to other primates, North American mammals and domesticated mammals to determine the source of the sequence. >KJ607607.1 appears to be from an American Black Bear (Ursus americanus) and not from an unknown primate.

View the full poster here.