Enhancing Capacity for Molecular and Evolutionary Genetic Research at The University of Montana: Acquisition of a Genetic Analyzer and Related Equipment

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A grant has been awarded to the University of Montana under the direction of Dr. L.Fishman, Dr. S. Miller, Dr. M. Minnick and Dr. R. Rosenzweig for the purchase of instrumentation to support research in evolutionary and molecular genetics in the Division of Biological Sciences (DBS) and the School of Forestry at UM. This instrumentation will increase the speed, efficiency and affordability of DNAsequencing, genotyping and gene expression analysis in order to reveal the connections between genotype and phenotype, and to understand how changes in DNA sequence and gene expression contribute to divergent evolution. The requested instrumentation will benefit the research programs of at least twelve faculty working in fields from Conservation Biology to Insect Evolution and Development to Viral Evolution. The research activities of the core users include ecological genetics of floral evolution and development of postzygotic isolating mechanisms in flowering plants, molecular phylogenetics of cyanobacteria, and evolutionary functional genomics of yeast. The equipment purchases will simultaneously invigorate all research activities at the University of Montana that utilize DNA analyses. The requested instrumentation will also advance UM's educational goals through use in established training and outreach programs, as well as increased opportunities for cutting-edge student research. Enhanced molecular genetic instrumentation will further the goal of providing research opportunities for undergraduate students, both in individual labs and as a component of DBS's core curriculum. The proposed equipment will also facilitate the execution of ambitious pre- and post-doctoral research projects and will prepare young researchers to succeed in the rapidly changing environment of biology research.