WEEK 11 LEARNING JOURNAL
By now you have seen examples of (almost) all mechanisms for transcriptional gene regulation. You have experienced the complexity of the hox genes, the weirdness of some unruly enhancers, the “wow” factor of genomic imprinting, the messiness of chromatin and the mysteries of XCI. You have read and dissected papers, developed your project, taken midterms and (most of you) presented in front of your peers.
For a moment, try to focus on what you learned since the last learning journal.
Please try to address these questions to the best of your abilities.
Factual knowledge
Please describe, briefly, two new, distinct pieces of factual knowledge that you acquired or developed since the last learning journal
Xist is a non coding RNA that is expressed on the inactive chromosome and causes the inactivation of that chromosome.
Tsix is another non coding RNA that inhibits the actions of Xist
Conceptual knowledge
Since connections and models make for conceptual knowledge… please describe any connections (direct or indirect) that you can see between the two pieces of knowledge described in A.
One model for XCI is that Xist inactivates one chromosome in cis and Tsix prevents the accumulation of Xist on the other X chromosome and therefore prevents one of the chromosomes from getting inactivated. The balance between these two RNAs will lead to proper XCI in females.
The two pieces of knowledge described in A are connected to each other because they are both part of the process of XCI and can present a small detail in the general model.
Metacognitive knowledge (no skills this time!)
If you are like most students in the class, you probably spent a significant amount of time reading, studying, and dissecting the article assigned for MT2.
- Please describe, briefly, the strategy that you employed to complete the task.
I read over the article and found the parts of the article that described each figure and made notes of them beside the image. Then tried to connect the figures together as a whole while also considering the points that they mentioned in the discussion.
- Thinking about your experience with reading and dissecting this article, what was the hardest part?
Finding the main question that the article was trying to answer, because they tested many different things and did not seem to specify how they all connect together in the discussion.
- Thinking about your experience with reading and dissecting this article this article, what did you feel most comfortable with/confident about? Why do you think that is?
The figures were described well and they were clear, I think I had a good understanding of most of the individual figures because I was able to look at each figure and describe for myself what it was showing.