Tortoise Sequencing

You have seven baby tortoises and you know four are from Madagascar. Since the four from Madagascar are more closely related to one another than they are to the other tortoises, you can find them by looking at their genes and measuring the differences in their DNA (or RNA in this case).

In order to see which tortoises are most closely related, you sequenced 1355 base pairs (bp), including the 12S and 16S rRNA and cytochrome b genes from each tortoise. Below are samples of the gels you obtained. If you don’t remember exactly how you sequence DNA, visit the genetics lab for a refresher course.

As a geneticist, your next step is to compare the gels and count the differences in the bases. Click here to see how you would compare the gels. Since we have so many base pairs, we wouldn't do this by hand; a computer would do it for us.

Click below to have the computer count the differences for you. Look for the results in the chart below.