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The MBB department is focused on the molecular and biochemical pathways that lead to cellular phenotype. Integral to our understanding of these pathways is elucidating how biological information is integrated - specifically, how the cell considers all of the various inputs, integrates these signals, and produces predictable cellular outcomes. This course will be the first offered in the MBB department in which the central theme is how biological information is integrated. Specifically, we will focus on the integration that takes place in the cell nucleus. Here, information about the developmental status of a cell, presented in the nucleus in the form of combinations of transcription factors, is integrated at gene promoters to produce predictable patterns of gene expression. We will cover three important and emerging topics in gene regulation: 1) how promoters function as integrated circuits, 2) how the histone (i.e., epigenetic) code may compensate for a curiously low level of apparent genetic instruction as to which transcription factors should bind to which promoters, and 3) how microarray technology leads to a whole-systems view of gene co-regulation. These topics in gene regulation are an emerging focal point in the Human Genome Project.
COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion
Level: GRAD Credit: .5 Gen Ed Area Dept: NONE Grading Mode: Graded
Prerequisites: [BIOL206 or MB&B206] OR [BIOL182 or MB&B182] Links to Web Resources For This Course.
Last Updated on MAR-21-2005
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459