Frequently Asked Questions
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Video Tutorial
1. Registering an Account

An introduction to the BOLD Student Data Portal website. This video provides an overview of the system and describes how to register and create a course.
2. Submitting Data

This video follows the submission of a DNA barcode record from the specimen data all the way to the sequence. It focuses on the student interface, but it allows instructors to follow the steps students will need to undertake in order to create their records.
3. Overseeing a course

This video provides an overview of the tools available to instructors to monitor student work and participation. It also describes the steps needed in validating and approving student-generated data for publication on BOLD and GenBank.

How do I tell the difference between a good trace and a bad trace?

It is usually pretty easy to tell the difference between a good trace and a bad one. Each of the 4 DNA nucleotides are represented by a specific coloured line, and when the trace quality is high you can decode the sequence of the nucleotides just by looking at the peak of each colored curve one after another. In a bad quality trace file the peaks tend to blend together, so it can be difficult to determine the order of each coloured curve.

The 4 nucleotides are represented by the following colours:

Red = Thymine

Green = Adenine

Black = Guanine

Blue = Cytosine

good Trace File Good quality trace file
Bad Trace File Bad quality trace file. As shown in the image, an N means that the nucleotide is unable to be assigned to one of the 4 nucleotides (unknown colour: yellow).
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