BIO305 Developmental Biology Instructor: Dave Champlin

Web Resources: A copy of this syllabus is available at: At this site are copies of the exams from the previous time this course was taught. My goal will be to post the PowerPoint presentations I use in lecture at this site also as well as a recording of the lecture for one week.

The maximum number of points for the course is 520 as follows: Each is described in more detail on our course web site: review paper worth 100 points two short writing assignments each worth 20 points two exams each worth 100 points cumulative final worth 100 points five quizzes each worth 20 points five in-class assignments each worth 20 points No make-ups for missed quizzes or in-class assignments, but you can drop the lowest two scores of the ten total quizzes / assignments. Each quiz will be announced at least a week ahead of time, but the in-class assignments won’t be announced ahead of time.

Day DateReadingTopic T 9/3 pp (Ch. 6) C. elegans, model systems, and molecular genetics Watch three Audio/Video handouts: 1A), 1B), and 1C Th9/5Ch. 1An introduction to developmental biology T9/10 QUIZ 1 (covers A/V Handouts 1A, 1B, and 1C) More introduction Watch two Audio/Video handouts: Review of transcription regulation, Parts 1 and 2 Th9/12Ch. 3Vertebrate life cycles T9/17 QUIZ 2(covers A/V Handouts 2A and 2B) Vertebrate axes and germ layers Th9/19 CH. 4Vertebrate axial patterning T9/24More vertebrate body plan Th9/26Ch. 5Early patterning of vertebrate nervous systems T10/1EXAM 1Chapters 1, 3, 4, and pp Th10/3 Ch. 2Molecular development of Drosophila T10/8More molecular development of Drosophila Th10/10Ch. 7Plant development On Thursday, 10/10, Please bring a copy of the primary research article you have selected (or more than one if you haven’t decided) plus your notes on the article.

What is developmental biology?

The 2002 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to these scientists for the use of C. elegans to understand programmed cell death (PCD).

A fertilized nematode egg and early embryos as viewed with Nomarski optics = Differential Interference Contrast (DIC).

As each C. elegans worm grows from the fertilized egg, it has an invariant cell lineage.

Caenorhabditis elegans = C. elegans nematode

Distinct patterns of cell division normally occur during each larval stage. Adult

The scientists discovered that lin-4 targets lin-14 for destruction by a novel mechanism called RNA interference (RNAi).

Although RNAi was just discovered in 1998, other scientists have already found hundreds of examples of RNAi in all plants and animals. There appear to be a few hundred miRNA in the human genome.

Caenorhabditis elegans = C. elegans nematode