Biology 398C- Advanced Cell & Molecular Biology                          William Terzaghi

 

Resource and Policy Information- Spring 2009

Office:        SLC 363

Phone:         (570) 408-4762

EMAIL:         terzaghi@wilkes.edu

WEBPAGE:  http://staffweb.wilkes.edu/william.terzaghi/AdvC&M.html

Office hours: MWF 10:00-12:00, or by appointment

Text:           None!

General Overview

Course will be a series of applied exercises, exposing you to the basics of cell and molecular biology.

  1. We will start by searching for genes in yield-related pathways in rice that vary between indica & japonica such that we can tell which alleles are expressed in F1 hybrids.
  2. We will then design primers to tell them apart, and extract DNA from japonica and indica and use it to test them.
  3. We will then clone and sequence the PCR amplicons to confirm that we are amplifying the desired products
  4. We will then use the validated PCR products to probe Southerns.
  5. We will extract RNA from indica, japonica & F1 hybrids to test which alleles are expressed.a
    1. By Northern
    2. By RT-PCR
    3. By real-time PCR
  6. We will extract proteins and do Westerns on indica, japonica & F1 hybrids on select proteins
  7. We will do microarrays
  8. We will look for antisense and small RNAs to our genes by LMW Northerns

Grading Proposal:  

  1. Drafts: 10 points each
  2. Sequencing presentation: 5 points
  3. Gene regulation presentation: 10 points
  4. Final presentation: 15 points
  5. Assignments: 2.5 points each
  6. Poster: 5 points
  7. Gene report 15 points
  8. Final report: 25 points

Alternatives

  1. Paper(s) instead of 1 or two presentations
  2. Research proposal instead of a presentation
  3. One or two exams?

SCALE:         4.0 = 90-100

                        3.5 = 85-89

                        3.0 = 80-84

                        2.5 = 75-79

                        2.0 = 70-74

                        1.5 = 65-69

                        1.0 = 60-64

                           0 = <60