Sequencing chloroplastic DNA from heritage Daffodil cultivars in schools.. The Daffodil DNA Project 2022

Developed from a Royal Society Partnership Grant project in 2019, led by teacher Jon Hale on the Island of Jersey, this new collaborative school-based research project is brought together by The University of Dundee Education and Social Work, The University of Dundee Botanic Garden, The University of Dundee School of Life Sciences, The Royal Society, The James Hutton Institute, schools across Scotland supported by Jon Hale and using living collections from the National Trust for Scotland Brodie Castle and Croft 16. The schools involved in this project worked in parallel to obtain genetic data on a very understudied, yet valuable genus. The students are working with STEM professionals and academics to grow various daffodils varieties, extracting DNA from their leaves and using Oxford Nanopore MinIon DNA sequencing in the classroom before assembling the chloroplast’s genome. An automated assembly and annotation process was subsequently carried out by the University of Dundee Data Analysis Group