Northland students were among those who donned lab coats and blue rubber gloves to examine the nitty-gritty of our soils, at Massey University's Albany campus recently. They used an advanced technique (polymerase chain reaction or PCR) to amplify and identify bacteria in the soil, collected from Northland and other parts of the country.
Students around the country were invited in April to take part in a gene-sequencing project, A Picture of Aotearoa, designed to introduce young people to the next generation of genome sequencing technology by mapping the genetic make-up of New Zealand's soils.
Wynter Bolton, a Year 12 student from Kaikohe Christian School, says the weekend was "heaps of fun, especially seeing what science is all about at university level."
The project, led by Dr Justin O'Sullivan and Dr Austen Ganley, and sponsored by Massey University, the New Zealand Microbiological Society, Custom Science and Roche, aims to produce a snapshot, or census, of all the microbial life in our soils. Final results will be available early next year.
The data, mapped to show the scope and variation of soil bacteria nationwide, will help scientists better understand soil health.