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Abstract Flow cytometry estimates of genome sizes among species of Drosophila show a 3-fold variation, ranging from ∼127 Mb in Drosophila mercatorum to ∼400 Mb in Drosophila cyrtoloma. However, the assembled portion of the Muller F element (orthologous to the fourth chromosome in Drosophila melanogaster) shows a nearly 14-fold variation in size, ranging from ∼1.3 Mb to >18 Mb. Here, we present chromosome-level long-read genome assemblies for 4 Drosophila species with expanded F elements ranging in size from 2.3 to 20.5 Mb. Each Muller element is present as a single scaffold in each assembly. These assemblies will enable new insights into the evolutionary causes and consequences of chromosome size expansion. 

The Drosophila kikkawai feature with Gene ID 108083276 was determined to be an ortholog of Drosophila melanogaster absent, small, or homeotic discs 1 (ash1). Two isoforms, ash1-PB and ash1-PC, were constructed on the D. kikkawai Muller D element using the GEP annotation protocol. The second coding exon of D. kikkawai ash1 includes an insertion translated into 18 additional amino acids compared to the D. melanogaster protein and is supported by RNA-Seq coverage, the lack of splice junction predictions, and multiple gene predictors. The first intron in both isoforms of D. kikkawai ash1 contains a well conserved non-canonical GC splice site. 

The Drosophila kikkawai feature with NCBI Gene ID 108084518 was determined to be an ortholog of Drosophila melanogaster Sox102F, a member of the FlyBase High Mobility Group Box Transcription Factors gene group (FBgg0000748). Five isoforms were constructed using the GEP F element annotation protocol, the longest being novel isoform Sox102F-PNE (identified using the XM_017180752 RefSeq prediction and RNA-seq data). Among the isoforms found in both D. melanogaster and D. kikkawai, Sox102F-PB is the longest and exhibits a 1.18x coding span expansion due to transposable element insertion into an intron. All D. kikkawai protein isoforms contain the conserved domain HMG_box_dom (IPR009071). 

The Genomics Education Partnership (GEP; https://thegep.org) began as a consortium of 16 faculty in 2006 with a goal of providing students with Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) in genomics. Today, GEP has over 200 faculty from more than 180 institutions and engages more than 3,900 undergraduates in authentic genomics research annually. These faculty joined and continued to participate in the GEP for many reasons, including the collaborative nature of the research, the well-established infrastructure, and the supportive network of like-minded colleagues. Faculty implement GEP materials in diverse settings ? ranging from short modules (2-8 weeks) within a course, to a standalone full-semester course, to independent student research. GEP students show significant gains in scientific knowledge and attitudes toward science. In addition to improving their understanding of the research process and how new knowledge is created in the field, GEP students acquire desirable and transferable skills essential for future participation in the workforce, such as problem solving, independence, application of knowledge, team-work, and collaboration. Students also gain competence in the use of computational algorithms to analyze large biological datasets ? thereby preparing students for a growing need of a workforce trained at applying statistics and computational tools to analyze large datasets. In addition, GEP students and their faculty mentors are eligible to be co-authors on the scientific publications that are based on their work. In this workshop, we will provide an overview of the GEP community, a hands-on guided tour of our introductory curriculum aimed to teach gene structure, transcription, translation, and processing, and a step-by-step walkthrough that illustrates the protocol for annotating a protein-coding gene in Drosophila. Participants will receive information on how to join the GEP community and receive training and resources to enable their implementations.