amethyst73 | New genome!

Today I got libraries assigned that have "Aquilegia" as the species designation. What the heck is Aquilegia? Turns out it's columbine! It's interesting to sequence for a couple of reasns. First, it evolutionarily sits between Arabidopsis (a very well-studied plant) and rice in terms of flowering plants. Second, it's got a huge range of growth, both north-south and up-down, so it's a good model for studying adaptation to soil and climate conditions.

I get to work on DNA from a pretty flower! Cool, huh?