THE PROJECT - Labwork
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The Dwarf Galago Project is fortunate enough to have Dr. Cristiano Vernesi and his genetics lab at the Centro di Ecologia Alpina, Fondazione E. Mach, Trento, Italy, at its disposal. Genetic material subsiding within extracted hair follicles and biopsy punches will be extracted, amplified and sequenced by highly skilled personnel with many years of experience. The lab has many years experience of working with sensitive and low quality DNA and is a key to make this project a success.

Focus genes for this project are planned to be two nuclear loci: (1) intron 11 of the von Wildebrand Factor, vWF; (2) a portion of the gene coding for the interphotoreceptor retinoid binding protein, IRBP; and (3) four mtDNA markers: cytochrome oxidase II (COII), cytochrome b (cytb), 12S and 16S ribosomal DNA.

The phylogenetic inference will follow analytical approaches explicitly tailored to estimate species trees from multilocus data: algorithms such as those implemented in the software programs STEM, BEST and *BEAST. We also hope to be able to infer species trees from these gene trees.
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