BSCI 312 EUKARYOTIC GENETICS LAB – SPRING 2003

Dr. R. B. Imberski (BPS - 3260) ri2@umail.umd.edu

Office hours 1:30-3:30 Tuesday and Thursday. Drop in, but for priority and to ensure availability make appointment through secretary in Biology Undergraduate Office (BPS – 2227, phone 405-6904). Do not phone or e-mail me for appointment; it will confound the secretary’s scheduling.

LABORATORY NOTEBOOK | LABORATORY SCHEDULE

Teaching Assistant:  To be announced. 
Prerequisite: A course in Principles of Genetics equivalent to BSCI 222 which did not have a lab.
Textual Material: Lab manual available at the University Book Center. If you have it, refer to your old Genetics text for the theory behind the exercises. Otherwise, some standard textbooks will be available for reference in the lab.
Objectives: This is a lab course in which you will need to maintain living material over a number of generations in order to demonstrate certain basic principles of eukaryotic genetics. This will be done with the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Other well-studied model systems, e.g., yeast, C.elegans (nematode), mouse, A.thaliana (flowering plant) could be used, but not as easily. (Neither H.sapiens nor Mendel’s peas would be practical for this course!)
Policies: Lab courses are classified as in class participation. Therefore, attendance is required in your assigned lab section and in the weekly discussion meeting. Since flies maintain their own schedule rather than ours, there will be times when you or your lab partner need to come in for a few minutes outside of regular lab. Grading will be based on lab reports, two quizzes, attendance and performance/attitude in lab. There will be no final exam; permission to dispense with it has been granted. Due dates for lab reports will be announced. Late reports will not be accepted.
Grading:  
Exercise 1: Drosophila Life Cycle, Morphology, Handling 15 points
Exercise 2: Segregation and Independent Assortment 30 points
Exercise 3: Mapping Linked Loci 30 points
Exercise 4: Polytene Chromosomes, Imaginal Discs 15 points
Exercise 5: Transposable Element Mutagenesis 30 points
Exercise 6: Phenotypic Manipulation of Gene Expression 30 points
Exercise 7: Complementation 20 points
Exercise 8: Localization of a Trait to a Chromosome 30 points
    --------------
    200 points
   
Quiz (April 1)
 30 points
   
Quiz (May 6)
 30 points
   
Attendance and Lab Performance
 40 points
      --------------
   
Total
 300 points

290 = A+, 280 = A, 270 = A-, 260 = B+, 250 = B, 240 = B-, 230 = C+, 220 = C, 210 = C-,
200 = D+, 190 = D, 180 = D-

 

LABORATORY NOTEBOOK

One of the most important parts of any laboratory investigation is the maintenance of a detailed, accurate and permanent record. Therefore, we ask that you have a loose leaf binder with several dividers. Exercises in genetics can continue for weeks. You will often be making observations on several different exercises in any given laboratory period. For this reason, you should divide your binder into different sections for each exercise.

Records of observations must be written as you observe specimens and/or flies. Never erase entries, write over entries or “white-out” entries. You can cross out with one line (so the original material can be read.) and rewrite the entries. You need the data in a clear and concise format for reports at the end of each exercise. At that time, we will check your report as well as original records.

General Guidelines:

  1. Use two sets of numbers for each page. The first one represents the exercise number, and the second is the one for pages in each exercise, e.g., page 1-1 and page 3-5. Number the pages at the bottom on one side only.
  2. Put the title at the beginning of each exercise and state the purpose or objective.
  3. Always record the date of each entry. Record the time if it is significant, (e.g., when adults were cleared prior to collecting virgin females within a six to eight hour window). Record magnifications for observation with the compound microscope. If you are drawing from another student’s prep--note this.
  4. You are expected to prepare for each week’s lab by previewing any new exercise to be started that week. This includes not only reading the printed hand-outs, but consulting a Genetics text for material relevant to the exercise. Be ready with questions about the exercises at the beginning of the lab. You are expected to review what steps you have already done in any exercises in progress.
  5. You must write a formal lab report at the end of each exercise by analyzing your data and discussing its significance. Answer questions raised in the printed hand-out. Include any changes you would make for improvement if the exercise were repeated.

Your notebook is not intended to be a typical physics or chemistry-type of notebook in which you are graded on “right” or “wrong” answers. The notebook should show your ability to make careful observations and maintain a permanent record. This is your working notebook, but someone else should be able to pick it up and understand what has occurred and make entries for you if you are ill.

Top

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LABORATORY SCHEDULE

(No Lab Week of 1/27)

Week of
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4
Exercise 5
Exercise 6
Exercise 7
Exercise 8
  . .  .  .  .  .  .  . 
Feb. 3
X
.
.
.
.
.
..
..
10
.
X
.
..
.
.
.
.
17
.
X
X
.
.
.
.
.
24
.
X
X
X
.
.
.
.
Mar. 3
.
X
X
X
.
.
.
.
10
.
X
X
.
.
.
.
.
17
.
.
X
.
X
.
.
.
24
SPRING BREAK
31
.
.
.
.
X
X
.
X
Apr. 7
.
.
.
.
X
X
X
X
14
.
.
.
.
X
X
X
X
21
.
.
.
.
X
X
X
X
28
.
.
.
.
X
X
.
X
May 5
.
.
.
.
X
.
..
.

 

Top

 


xxCollege of Life Sciences