wolverton@owu

Slides: Cell Signaling

I forgot to press ‘record’ on the lecture this morning, so I’m sharing a lecture over the same topic from a previous semester, sorry! Slides: Photosynthesis

Slides: Photosynthesis

Slides: Cellular Respiration

Slides: Cellular Respiration

Slides: Metabolism overview, Cellular Respiration

Slides: Metabolism

Slides: Cell Connections, Plasma Membrane

Slides: Cytoskeleton

Slides: Nucleus and Endomembrane System

Slides: Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes

Slides: Water and pH Slides: Carbon

Slides: Atoms and Bonds Slides: Water and pH

First day of class for Fall 2022, and today was an introduction and overview of the scope of the class. Slides: Intro & Overview

The nuts and bolts of how an mRNA is read and turned into a sequence of amino acids by the ribosome. Slides: Translation

This time we discussed the greater complexity of transcription in eukaryotes as well as the processing required to prepare the mRNA primary transcript for export from the nucleus. Then we changed gears and started discussing the steps involved in translating from RNA into a sequence of amino acids. Slides: Transcription and Genetic Code

We briefly reviewed the Beadle and Tatum results indicating that genes encode polypeptides, then moved on to discuss how the order of amino acids in a polypeptide chain is specified by the sequence of bases making up RNA. This sequence is “read” 3 bases at a time, which is called a codon, which specifies a … Continue reading "34. Genetic Code and RNA"

We reviewed the key points of replication and discussed a few major differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes related to replication. We discussed the Beadle and Tatum experiment, an elegant demonstration of the one gene – one polypeptide hypothesis. Slides: How genes work

We talked about the evidence showing that DNA replication takes place in a semi-conservative manner, with each strand of the double helix serving as a template for the creation of a new complementary strand. Then we discussed the mechanism of replication, focusing on prokaryotes for now. Slides: DNA Replication

We looked at the 3 key experiments in the history of biology that pointed to DNA as the hereditary material, including the Griffith transformation experiment, followed up by Avery, MacCleod, and McCarty, and finally the Hershey and Chase experiment. Then we turned to the structure of DNA and how it encodes information. Slides: DNA Function … Continue reading "31. DNA Function and Struct...

This time we take our understanding of the basic principles of inheritance and see how they match with our understanding of chromosomes, then we look at how the process of crossing over promotes genetic recombination and independent assortment, even for genes on the same chromosome as long as they are far enough apart. Slides: Chromosomes … Continue reading "30. Chromosomes and Mapping"

This time we walk through the basic applications of Mendel’s principles, thinking about the connections between his data and the processes of meiosis and fertilization. Slides: Genetics

An introduction to the key ideas and insights gained as Mendel studied the inheritance of 7 characteristics of garden peas. He collected large quantities of data by scoring the phenotypes of offspring from carefully controlled cross-pollination events, using inductive reasoning to arrive at a set of principles of inheritance that we still largely accept today. … Continue reading "28. Mendel...

Meiosis is the special form of nuclear division that cuts the ploidy level (number of versions of chromosomes) in half. This is the process that enables sexual reproduction to occur by maintaining the same ploidy level afer fertilization as before meiosis. Meiosis is made up of 2 rounds of division with no intervening synthesis phase, … Continue reading "27. Meiosis"

The cell has various checkpoints in place to prevent itself from prematurely progressing through the cell cycle. Some of these checkpoints monitor external factors, others internal state, and one is based on a physical cue. When one or more of these cell cycle checkpoints fails, uncontrolled cell division can occur, which can lead to tumor … Continue reading "26. Cell cycle regulation and&#1...