Update

As many of you know, our class has finally begun to annotate Amigo’s genome!  I learned two things really fast.  Firstly, Dr. Gibbon and Dr. Adair were right – you eventually get the hang of what you are doing.  A few posts ago I was complaining about how confused I was in lab.  However, I am pretty sure that I finally got the hang of what I was doing today!  It is an exciting feeling not being totally confused in lab:)  Secondly, I am learning that a lot of scientific research is educated guessing.  For example, Yasmene and I are annotating part of the genome together.  There was one section where we thought a potential tiny gene could be inserted.  A few classmates said no.  A few classmates said yes.  One teacher said no.  One teacher said yes.  In the end we decided to insert the gene because of the high coding potential.  However, all of that goes to say that a lot of what we are doing is opinion based.  It is totally up to our decision making if we insert, delete, or extend a gene – that is a lot of pressure it feels like!