Monthly Archives: February 2015

Thinking about the group portion of the Midterm exam…

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• Is there anything that you learned from your group members/from the discussion with your group members?

• Do you think your answer improved (from the individual to the group one)?

• Did you identify any points where you went wrong in your individual answer?

• How did you feel after the group portion?

I learnt that I should have included every piece of information that was given to us in the question. I think that my answer did improve because it became we managed to include more details. I did not recall any points where I may have gone wrong, it was simply including more details and considerations in the answer to the question. After the activity I still felt doubtful about our model :).

Mistake?

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I was reading through some of my old notes from 335, and it is mentioned that “for LOF in double mutants, the phenotype that is observed is the one more downstream therefore it has a stronger effect” .. so I think Dr. Kalas might have made a mistake in class about the dorsalization/ventrilization of the drosophilla  in the week 3 lectures (pg 15) …

I think she mentioned that the dorsal mutant was a LOF and toll mutant was a GOF, however looking at my 335 notes, I think that both of the mutants may be a LOF mutant and therefore the phenotype that is seen is due to the gene/protein that is more downstream.

Looking at the artist’s drawing of the pathway, if dorsal was a LOF mutant and toll was a GOF mutant, then in a double mutant of dorsal and toll, we should get a ventralized embryo… So my main confusion here is that how is the embryo dorsalized when toll is always active and dorsal has lost its function …

🙁

 

Edit: Question resolved

Week 5 learning journal…

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Factual knowledge

  1. Please describe, briefly, one new piece of factual knowledge that you acquired or developed so far in the BIOL463.

I have learnt the meaning of the term “morphogene”.  This term describes a                          substance that is diffusable,  and is invovled in patterning in a concentration                       dependent manner. This substance eventually affects structure formation during                 development.

 

  1. Please describe how you know that you have acquired or developed this piece of factual knowledge, and provide some evidence for it.

        Because I can apply the term to other substances  involved in development, such as         bicoid which is a morphogene.

 Conceptual knowledge

  1. Please describe, briefly, one new piece of conceptual knowledge that you acquired or developed so far in BIOL463.

 

I have learnt a great deal about maternal effect genes. This concept explains how               the mother’s genotype can determine the offsprings phenotype by inserting                         RNA/proteins into the egg. RNA molecules can be anchored to the cell wall                        and cause a concentration gradient in the egg. This  gradient will help the                            embryo to form an axis and activate other genes.

 

  1. Please describe how you know that you have acquired or developed this piece of conceptual knowledge, and provide some evidence for it.

 

   I could explain it to someone who had no knowledge of biology!

 Skills

  1. Please describe, briefly, one skill that you acquired or developed/are developing so far in BIOL463.

 

Now I can figure out the gene pathways (upstream/downstream) based on data from          the phenotype of double mutants. The gene that is more downstream in the pathway          causes the phenotype that is seen

 

  1. Please describe how you know that you have acquired or developed this skill, and provide some evidence for it.

 

Because I was able to go through the dorsalized/ ventrilized pathway in drosophilla             again on my own! (from week 4)

What is factual knowledge useful for?

 

1.Think about a piece of factual knowledge that you developed/acquired. Briefly describe what you think it is useful for.

             I think factual knowledge is useful to understand what everyone else is talking                    about. For   example, knowing that usually a gene’s name comes from the                          phenotype of the mutant, can be very helpful when reading articles/information                    about genes that are newly found or ones that I have no knowledge about.