- Katerina Holan
- Analyzing RNA-seq Data to Determine Transcriptome Differences for NUE in Maize
- Agricultural Accounting
Describe
your research
experience
My research interests are to improve or alter crop genetics through plant breeding or biotechnology in hopes of creating more sustainable agriculture.
This research took samples from various maize lines and tissues that were grown in both high and low nitrogen in order to determine differing gene expressions derived from those two nitrogen levels. This involved extracting RNA from each sample and checking its quality with both a formaldehyde gel and a concentration measurement. The samples were then purified with a DNAse protocol. Each sample’s RNA concentration was then calculated again to ensure good quality RNA. This fall, RNA-seq will be done on all of the samples to determine the expression level of each gene product. These expressions can then be compared and analyzed to determine if the differing nitrogen levels resulted in differential expression.
As one of the recipient's of OUR's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (2015), the results of Katerina's research can be found here.