KCC Contributes to DNA Barcoding Breakthroughs
by Yelena Mandenberg

Under the supervision of Sawar Jahangir, a biology professor here at Kingsborough, students are now making a huge dent in the world of DNA barcoding.

A barcode is used as an identifier. When you go into a store, every product is labeled by a barcode. A machine is able to read the series of lines and understand what product it is you are trying to buy, and different information about it. DNA barcodes work in the same way.

Every living organism has its own original and unique DNA barcode. The barcodes are created from short sequences of DNA. The DNA barcode produces a life-saving enzyme, COI (cytochrome C oxidase), which is needed to make the energy molecule ATP (which comes from food).

Each of these DNA barcodes is then stored in public databases. The United States' database is called GenBank, short for Gene Bank.

In the very beginning, GenBank started out empty. Over the last few years scientists, researchers and students have been trying to fill in the blanks and invent these codes. As of right now there are over 260,000 species already recorded in GenBank, and there are new developments every day. By developing this technology, scientists are hoping to be able to use it to identify new species, members of a population, figure out evolutionary connections, and eventually use it in forensics labs.

This system is almost fully developed. It is widely used by scientists all over the world.

The only drawback right now is that the “sequencer” (the machine used to identify all the DNA) is not very portable. Scientists are working on making it smaller, like a laptop, so that anyone can use it, anywhere.

The way finding a DNA match works, for example, having any object that contains DNA: a random feather or egg, even a piece of hair. You would be able to put it in the DNA Sequencer, and it would search the database and find a match.

DNA barcoding is highly accurate and used to tell apart different species. Some species have differences that scientists could not spot before. Some species are so closely related it is impossible to spot their differences with the human eye.

In the first few years of using DNA barcoding, scientists found about 50 new species of birds here in North America. However, it does not get extremely specific. It can tell which species a certain drop of blood, feather or piece of fur belongs to. However, it cannot tell which specific breed or person it came from.

Since DNA barcoding is so highly accurate and can find those small yet extremely important differences between species, it can be used to figure out evolution charts. Scientists could be able to take different animals and analyze their DNA and figure out what common DNA codes they share, and where they vary.

Professor Jahangir, started a great program right here at KCC called the C-step program, where students can actually learn to do real research with DNA barcoding.

Professor Jahangir selects students with good grades, or students interested in this subject for this research project. Being interested is the key to getting into this program.

Working on this research are also C-step program students. The C-step program is a wonderful program that helps minorities and low-income students.

C-step was also created to help those students (and budding scientists!) who are extremely under-represented in the science field here in America. C-step helps fund their research, and offers other financial support, such as paying for conferences and books. It really helps out students who would otherwise be unable to do very important research.

Last semester, there were about six students working on this project with Professor Jahangir.

Several of professor Jahangir's students are trying to create DNA barcodes for various species, such as mussels and fish found right in the bay. One of the students, Matt Einhorn, actually managed to invent a DNA barcode for bluefish. His findings will be published in Genbank.

Although none of the other students have invented a DNA barcode yet, right now they are working with professor Jahangir on creating a barcode for oysters. Some of the other students are working on trying to create DNA barcodes for lobsters and other sea creatures.

Although it is very difficult work, professor Jahangir is very enthusiastic about this project.