Eden Driza, FCLC 2024

MAJOR: Natural Science

BIO: Eden is a senior majoring in Natural Science on the pre-med track. She is planning on pursuing a career as a physician. At Fordham University, she worked under the mentorship of Dr. Mary Egan and was president of a health and wellness club, BeWell. In her free time, Eden enjoys lifting weights and perfecting her macaron baking craft.

PROJECT TITLE: Exploring gene regions: ITS and Mat-k for identifying Brassica varieties via DNA barcoding

MENTOR: Mary Egan, Department of Natural Science

ABSTRACT: Typically, gene regions such as rbcL are used to amplify plant DNA; however, it is not as successful in identifying to the species level or below (such as for identifying varieties of Brassica). Gene regions like mat-K have been shown to be informative, but mat-K may not always yield PCR results. For identifying plants, a multiple gene region barcode would be needed. We therefore examined multiple gene regions (rbcL, mat-K and ITS) for their utility in identifying plant species from DNA extracted from pollen collected by bees. In addition, we wanted to compare plant diversity between a commercial hive that is moved to different locations to pollinate crops and a stationary hive. Finally, we wanted to see if we would be able to use the DNA we extracted from pollen pellets to identify the pollinators. We sorted pollen pellets collected by bees according to color (as a proxy for species) and then used molecular methods to identify the plants and their pollinators based on DNA sequences.