A Preliminary Analysis of Contracaecum Biodiversity

This project aims to gain a better understanding of the biodiversity of Contracaecum parasites from a variety of geographic locations and host fish species. The analysis of this biodiversity must be done through DNA sequencing of larval Contracaecum due to their lifecycle involving organisms at multiple trophic levels. The specific gene being amplified and compared is the 28s large ribosomal subunit gene which tends to be highly conserved among species. Sequence analysis is done using a BLAST search query in order to compare the new sequences to previously documented Contracaeum species’ sequences. Further work must be done including using multiple primers for greater concensus sequence validity and sequencing more samples.https://digitalcommons.snc.edu/collaborative_presentations/1022/thumbnail.jp