Electrophoresis Equipment Not Required

This program is a complete laboratory course for teaching contemporary biology at the beginning college level. The program is suitable as a full-semester course that meets once per week and presents an experimental approach to the study of the biological sciences. The table of contents of the comprehensive program manual is shown below. The program is designed for up to 16 students working in teams of two and provides essentially all of the chemicals, accessories, and instructions that are needed to teach fifteen 60-90 minute laboratory sessions. Electrophoresis equipment is not required. To use this program, you will need microscopes, a small centrifuge, ethyl alcohol and acetic acid. The price of the course is about $26 per student per semester if these items are available in your teaching laboratory.

As an introduction to the course, students study selected topics in contemporary animal and plant biology including enzyme action, cell respiration, and evolution at the molecular level. Novel experiments are then presented on mitosis, osmoregulation and enzyme distribution which serve to help students gain an appreciation for cell structure and function. Protein biological chemistry forms the next section of the course where the technique of gel filtration chromatography is used to study the structure and function of biologically important proteins in blood. In the final section of the program, students are introduced to selected topics on the molecular biology of DNA including DNA isolation and basic DNA cloning procedures.

Table of Contents

Experimental Analysis I: Animal Biology and Evolution

2. Quantifying Amylase Activity........................................................... 12

3. Proteases and Factors that Influence Enzyme Activity......................... 21

4. Evolution of Serum Proteins............................................................ 27

Experimental Analysis II: Plant Physiology and Cell Biology

2. Effects of Temperature on Cell Respiration........................................ 46

3. Osmolarity and a Cytological Bioassay.............................................. 59

4. Location of an Enzyme in Plant Cells and Tissues............................... 67

5. Mitotic Activity and Cell Respiration................................................... 74

6. Enzyme Cytochemistry.................................................................... 81

Experimental Analysis III: Protein Biological Chemistry and Gel Filtration

Chromatography

1. Separating Molecules by Gel Filtration............................................... 92

2. The Molecular Weight of Hemoglobin................................................ 99

3. Binding Specificity of Serum Albumin................................................ 104

Experimental Analysis IV: Structure, Isolation, and Function of DNA

General Background........................................................................... 108

1. Properties of DNA........................................................................... 114

2. Cell Fractionation and DNA Isolation................................................ 119

3. Gene Function and Cloning in Bacteria.............................................. 126