Environmental Genomics

Catalog description

Students in this course will learn a variety of skills related to environmental genomics which is a rapidly emerging field that uses DNA sequencing technologies to address ecological questions. Through both lecture and hands-on laboratory exercises, students will gain the necessary theoretical and computational skills needed to analyze and interpret environmental sequence data. Topics explored in this course include: short and long-read sequencing technologies, inhibitor removal, eDNA-based monitoring, amplicon sequencing, shotgun metagenomics, and pipeline development. Laboratory exercises will build towards a collaborative research project that examines the environmental microbiome (e.g., bacteria, archaea, and/or fungi) of RIT’s forested wetlands as well as non-invasively tracks vertebrate animal biodiversity and emerging wildlife pathogens (e.g., bacteria, fungi and viruses) via eDNA.