Q: FROM MENTEE KATIE A. IN WI
We learned about genetics in biology two years ago, and I was wondering
what is involved in a career in genetics. There has got to be more to it than
making a career of finding out whether this plant has Gg or Gy etc.
genes, so what is it? Thank you very much.

A: FROM MENTOR AMY MCMILLAN. TO READ AMY'S BIO CLICK HERE.
Hi Katie, There are many different kinds of careers in genetics but I
can only really speak about my career. I am a population geneticist - I
study wildlife populations in order to better understand relationships
among different individuals within populations and relationships with
other populations. I am also interested in how populations react to
contaminants, global warming, and habitat alterations of other kinds.
Remember Mendel and his peas? Population geneticists use the principles
of heredity that Mendel discovered (as well as things discovered by many
other geneticists before us) in order to study the organisms we are
interested in. My career involves using many different kinds of DNA
markers in order to genetically characterize each individual and then
comparing the genetic profile of individuals from one population to that
of another population. For example, right now I am studying loons, a
big migrating water bird found in the northern states and Canada. We (I
have several collaborators) are interested how much loons move around in
their summer territories and how related they are to loons in
neighboring lakes. We will use these relationships and the genetic
profiles of summer loons to figure out where loons from Maine or New
York or Vermont etc. are spending their winters. We are interested in
this because wintering loons live in different areas along the coast and
they are susceptible to death or injury by oil spills or other
contaminants and we don't really know which summer populations are
affected by these impacts. I am also using genetic techniques to
determine where loons that used Lake Erie on their migration route come
from. Lake Erie is being impacted by a botulism outbreak, which is
causing the deaths of many waterbirds. We would like to know where in
Canada dead birds came from and genetic techniques can help us do that.
SO - hopefully that gives you an idea of one of the ways you can have a
career using genetics! Hope it helped!

******

A: FROM MENTOR DANELL OLIVER-COLLINS. TO READ DANELL'S BIO CLICK HERE.
There is a growing field of DNA matching in Forensics. Agencies such as
FBI or a state bureau of investigation often use DNA typing as a part of their fact finding investigations. It is all very fascinating and worth a look