MCDB 4650

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MCDB 4650 Developmental Biology
Instructors Jennifer Knight, Bill Wood
Teaching Assistants Chris English Stacy
Erickson Annie Muske-Dukes Julie Weidner
Learning Assistants Austin Butterfield Tom
Gardner Katie Krohne Ashley Lane
www.colorado.edu/MCDB/MCDB4650
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Clickers (Response Pads)
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Joining the class If the green light on your
clicker is blinking dimly, you're already
joined. If not 1) Hold down power button
at base until lights flash. 2) Press "Join". 3)
Press "0", "5", "Send" 4) The red light should
go off and the green light should start
blinking. If not, repeat (2) and (3).
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• Have you used clickers before in a previous
  class?
• a) yes
• b) no

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How did you feel about clickers in previous
courses? a) loved them b) liked them c)
tolerated them d) disliked them e) hated them
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Lab and Problem solving sessions
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Course Point Structure Pretest and other
surveys, week 1 mini-problem set 16  In-class
quizzes (every 2 weeks 25 pts each)
150 Problem sets (weekly, due Wed midnite 10
pts) 130 Paper analysis 60 In
class participation (3 pt/class)
84 Midterm exams (none)
0 Cumulative Final Exam
60 Total 500
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WEEKLY SCHEDULE Before Tues (T) Class Study
notes, reading, for the week! also for Thurs
(R) class T,R Classes will include
lecture clicker questions (some on
reading) group work on problems, with
discussion quizzes, every other Tuesday
analysis of an article, every other
Thursday Four Lab Sections on T, Wed (W) 1st
hour tutorial session, group work with
TA, LAs on problems from homework site. Hours 2
and 3 lab work Problem assignments upload
answers to homework site before midnight each
Wednesday.
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Why?
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Let's talk a little bit about development
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Learning Goals What we expect you to know when
you begin   Fundamentals and basic methods
of genetics, cell and molecular biology.
What we expect you to know when you finish  
You should be able to describe the basics of
vertebrate embryonic development and tissue
differentiation, design and interpret genetics
experiments that elucidate developmental
mechanisms and developmental defects.
Throughout the course we will stress experimental
approaches (especially in the problem sets) we
want you to be able to cite the evidence for what
we know and describe how it was obtained. See
Learning Goals link on web page for details
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Cell cycle
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G1
G2
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The simplest life cycle
Fig. 1
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Sexual life cycle
2N zygote
meiosis
1N gametes
fertilization
2N zygote
Fig. 2a
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Metazoan life cycle
Somatic cells
Germ line
development
2N zygote
Fig. 2b
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Watch an embryo develop
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A developing embryo, often inside an eggshell,
becomes more complex with time, as a single cell
gives rise to a highly organized multicellular
animal. Does such an embryo violate the second
law of thermodynamics (the entropy of a closed
system tends toward a maximum)? a) yes b)
apparently c) no
Why or why not?
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?
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G 2.1
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ROUGH COURSE OUTLINE I. Molecular
and cellular mechanisms in development   How
controls of gene expression and cell signaling
are used for developmental regulation. A major
goal of the rest of the course is to understand
development in terms of molecular and cellular
mechanisms. II. Developmental
genetics Developmental genetics of three
important model animals, the nematode C.
elegans, the fruit fly Drosophila, and the mouse,
illustrating the power of genetic analysis for
investigating development and where much of our
basic knowledge about it comes from. III.
Mechanisms of embryonic development and
differentiation of vertebrates   Fertilization
proceeding through embryogenesis, organogenesis,
and differentiation in animals, emphasizing
frog, chick, mouse, and human embryos.
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DNA
Which way is transcription going? a) left to
right. b) right to left.
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Genome sizes in various phyla
A 8-6
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Genome complexities of five organisms