Their work is also the first chromosome-level genome assembly of any scorpion from either family \u2013 helping to fill a crucial gap in the genomic knowledge of scorpions, shedding light on the evolutionary development and diversification of arachnids, and advancing studies in comparative and functional genomics.<\/p>\n
The team published their work in the May 2024 edition<\/a> of the journal Genome Biology and Evolution<\/a>.<\/p>\n But perhaps just as remarkable as the publication of this first-of-its-kind genomic research is the research team itself \u2013 a diverse group of scholars in an intensive postbaccalaureate program who\u2019ve spent the last year in Storrs getting a crash course in hands-on skills while each working to find their own place in the research world.<\/p>\n ‘Diverse Experiences’<\/strong><\/p>\n While each of the eight scholars in the first cohort of UConn\u2019s National Science Foundation supported Research and Mentoring for Postbaccalaureates program, or RaMP<\/a>, has their own unique interests, they share similar reasons for why they wanted to join the program after they completed their undergraduate studies \u2013 some at UConn and some elsewhere \u2013 in the spring of 2023.<\/p>\n Jennifer Santiago Membre\u00f1o and Aviel Rodriguez each graduated from the University of Puerto Rico, where massive disruptions caused by Hurricane Maria and the COVID-19 pandemic limited their ability to gain valuable research experience as undergrads.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a pretty tumultuous time,\u201d says Santiago Membre\u00f1o. \u201cLife was continuously being paused.\u201d<\/p>\n Samuel Pring, who attended Bucknell University, found an interest in RNA research, but had fewer opportunities to take classes and expand his research efforts at his small college in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n Like many undergraduate students, Adam Glendening \u201923 (CLAS) and Carolina Jara \u201923 (CLAS) both had to work while also going to school, leaving them less time to take on research and independent projects.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter graduation, it turns out a lot of places don’t take landscaping as fieldwork experience,\u201d Glendening says.<\/p>\n Samuel Hilliman \u201923 (CLAS) gained an interest in research while studying at UConn, but didn\u2019t get the hands-on experience needed to develop his own interests.<\/p>\n Meridia Jane Bryant, who graduated from the University of Kansas, found that her life and research interests changed after she transitioned while an undergraduate \u2013 she wanted to shift gears and focus more on bioinformatics, but didn\u2019t have the experience to do so.<\/p>\n When Asher Coello \u201923 (CLAS) changed to UConn Storrs from a regional campus, he struggled to make inroads into the research community.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always just been in the books,\u201d Coello says. \u201cI\u2019ve never actually been in the lab doing stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n Their stories are familiar to Elizabeth Jockusch, a professor in UConn\u2019s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the principal investigator and lead mentor for RaMP at UConn.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’re at a Research 1 university,\u201d Jockusch says. \u201cThere are research opportunities here. And yet, we see how many students can\u2019t take advantage of them, so it’s clear that there’s this huge need.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason that the program appealed to me \u2013 the reason that we brought everyone together and wrote the grant \u2013 is that, essentially, we see the need in our students.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2022, Jockusch and a team of faculty collaborators received that grant \u2013 for just under $3 million \u2013 from the National Science Foundation RaMP in Biological Sciences<\/a> program, which invites proposal submissions to establish networks that support full-time research, mentoring, and training for recent college graduates who have had few or no research or training opportunities during college.<\/p>\n Part of the NSF funding program\u2019s goal is to support a globally competitive and culturally diverse STEM workforce by recruiting and training individuals for a range of potential career pathways in biological sciences.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is maybe an exaggeration, but it feels like kind of a last chance to hook people into the STEM pipeline of education,\u201d Jockusch says. \u201cIf you graduate and your field experience is landscaping, because that’s how you were paying the bills, it’s much harder to get that kind of job. So instead, you can come here, you have a year where you get these diverse experiences, and then you can go on.\u201d<\/p>\n Prior laboratory experience is not a requirement for RaMP scholars, and the NSF grant will ultimately support three consecutive year-long RaMP cohorts at UConn.<\/p>\n ‘The Baby Swims’<\/strong><\/p>\n The first eight scholars began their work in August 2023 \u2013 and there was no period of adjustment or easing into the program.<\/p>\n \u201cMy favorite allegory that I keep using is that I feel like one of the babies at the YMCA that they just throw into the pool,\u201d says Coello. \u201cBecause it looks very scary, and it probably is in the moment. But, the baby swims.\u201d<\/p>\n Within the first month of the RaMP program, the cohort had successfully assembled their first set of DNA sequences.<\/p>\n They quickly learned how to handle specimens and extract DNA. They learned how to conduct high throughput sequencing and assemble genomes. They learned how to annotate a genome, finding the locations of individual genes. They got a crash course on bioinformatics, a discipline that melds biology and computer science.<\/p>\n Alongside their newfound lab skills, the scholars learned soft skills critical to their future success in research. They learned about time management, prioritizing tasks and workloads, taking copious notes, and the importance of networking.<\/p>\n And they launched their own projects in affiliated faculty labs as well as on the group project sequencing the scorpion genome.<\/p>\n Hilliman and Pring both work in the Yuan Lab<\/a>, where Pring is researching the evolution of flower structures, specifically how bilateral flower symmetry has evolved, and Hilliman is working to manipulate flower pigmentation using genetic engineering.<\/p>\n In Jockusch\u2019s lab<\/a>, Coello is working on genetic novelty in the giant milkweed bug, Oncopeltus fasciatus<\/em> \u2013 trying to turn off certain genes to see what it does and how it might be genetically significant \u2013 and Bryant is building a program to help identify novel genes.<\/p>\n \u201cThose genes that kind of originated at whatever group you\u2019re interested in \u2013 looking at making a program to help people find those, that way they can do their own research on what they are and what they\u2019re doing, without needing to go through all the bioinformatic steps to find them in the first place,\u201d Bryant says. \u201cBecause there really isn\u2019t anything that does that.\u201d<\/p>\n In the Wegrzyn Lab<\/a>, Jara is studying disease resistance in two tree species \u2013 American beech and butternut \u2013 while Glendening is working on a project on hemlock wooly adelgid, an invasive pest impacting hemlock trees.<\/p>\n Santiago Membre\u00f1o\u2019s work in the Kanadia Lab<\/a> involves understanding the role of the minor spliceosome.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/RaMP-Logo.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\n![\"UConn](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/IMG_6873-1-400x300-1.jpg\")