Science Report on Joint Genome Institute.

At the JGI--or Joint Genome Institute--I had the opportunity to experience one of the largest dedicated DNA sequencing operations in the world. Basically, I got to see firsthand the machinery and technology involved in the process called whole-genome shotgun sequencing, whereby the order of bases in an organism's genome is determined. One of the tour guides, before the tour, gave us an animated illustration of this process. In this genome-determining-process, DNA from the organism to …

…plasmids to enter into the bacteria. Also, we saw a robotic bacteria picker, which picks specific white bacteria colonies out of the plate. Furthermore, we saw a large number of thermal cyclers and sequencing machines. Overall, the tour was worthwhile because we learned how specialized institutions such as the JGI sequence an organism's DNA and had the opportunity to overlap segmented pieces of DNA in a 'hands-on' activity with the purpose of determining the genome.