Cell Bio Course Update

Greetings all,

Given the terrible mass email program available, I’m using this method for commo instead.

I sent out an attached xls file earlier today with your grade data and (if you scroll down in excel) some charts including a histogram.  Hopefully this will assuage any anxiety about the exam and whether it was fair.

The course website has been updated for lessons 14-16.  These next lessons are set up to be direct extensions of our nucleic acids lessons.  First we get into mutations at the nucleic acids level and we’ll study the response at the peptide level.  Then we’ll get into manipulating DNA in the laboratory.

WPR #1 Cell Bio

There’s a lot of material.  But if you ensure you understand these major points that we’ve covered, then you ought to be doing pretty well.

Drop me a line with Q’s.

- Proks vs. Euks – differences and similarities

- Kind of chemical bonds that define or are distinctive for a given class of biological macromolecule.

- Reaction energy diagrams (RED)

- Enzymes and what they do (think RED)

- Delta G and DeltaGo

- Know primary classes of biological macromolecules, their monomer units and be able to identify them from a picture

- Scientific Method

- Microscope

- DNA replication: you need to be able to talk over a movie and describe each step, the players, and the chemistry behind the operation.

- DNA packing: DNA, histone-DNA string, histone-DNA fiber, diffuse chromatid material, condense into chromosomes.

- Genetic Code: total codons, codons encoding amino acids, understand the wobble position.

- Base pairs: understand that G can pair with U (the wobble pair) to give flexibility to the genetic code.

- Know Mitosis and Meiosis

The movies and cartoons I linked to in the lessons will really help you out for this exam.

Good luck and see you tomorrow!

Nucleic Acids crew: In vitro selection and SELEX and your next papers

Some links to get you started:

Ensure you understand PCR.  Here are some resources:

• DNA PCR Tutorial (Click on Amplification Tutorial)
• Here’s a great YouTube video of PCR

Famalouk’s page on SELEX: http://www.lmb.uni-muenchen.de/groups/famulok/SELEX.html

SELEX wiki

The next review paper you need to read (it’s more digest-able than the Breaker review).  Click on PDF.

The next data paper you need to read.  It involves the reselection of a known ATP aptamer for high affinity and specificity. Click on PDF.

Online Cuttlefish Resources

Some Links to get you started on your cuttlefish journey are as follows:

http://www.cephalopod.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuttlefish

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/camo/

http://www.tonmo.com/cephcare/cuttlefishcare.php

http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=540

http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/

A basic news story about cuttles from National Geographic.