Hi.
I continue to post my Genetics courses at
www.synapses.co.uk/genetics
and today I have swapped course three, Advanced Genetics, for course
four, Molecular Genetics.
This course in Molecular Genetics would be equivalent to a Sophomore (or
higher) university level course so there are some im****tant differences
between this course and the previous three courses.
First, there are no workshops because that format is not useful in this
setting. Instead, there are 74 SAQs!
Second, I assume that you have an understanding of "descriptive
chemistry" (as opposed to the more difficult "quantitative chemistry").
That is, you should feel comfortable with the idea of molecules and
structures. [My course "Principles of Alchemy (Chemistry)" is for a much
younger student but teaches far more chemistry than I assume in our
Molecular Genetics course.] By the way, I (worked very hard to) provide
detailed drawings of nucleic acid molecules but they must be shrunken
down to a size that fits well on the computer screen. So, I have set up
special images throughout the course that you can click on in order to
see clearly the details of the molecules. It is not necessary to learn
them in this kind of detail but it might help you to understand the
basic chemistry and appreciate the complexity of these molecules.
Third, our six lessons in Molecular Genetics are much, MUCH longer than
previous lessons. Each one of the lessons in Molecular Genetics would
amount to several hours of lectures presented over the course of a week.
I decided to stick with a broader lesson group - the six "lessons" -
because breaking them up along the way would have made for some "messy"
splits and lose the consistency that is useful in each topic (lesson).
However, to help you work through these "mega-lessons", I provide breaks
along the way and hyperlinks to each "chunk" of information.
Im****tantly, you should allocate two to three times as much time to work
through Molecular Genetics as you allowed in your previous courses.
(Molecular Genetics is a course equivalent to all three previous courses
combined.)
Learning Outcomes for Molecular Genetics
After completion of this course the student will be able to:
1.describe the basis upon which we link molecular genetics to earlier
(non-molecular) genetics.
2.describe and understand the structure of DNA and RNA, their "subunits"
and how they differ.
3.describe how DNA is duplicated, how DNA is transcribed into RNA and
how RNA is translated into proteins.
4.understand the Genetic Code and how to translate a nucleic acid
sequence into an amino acid sequence.
5.understand the structure and details of prokaryotic DNA duplication
including details of DNA polymerase.
6.describe the three ways bacteria can exchange genes as well as
understand restriction endonucleases.
7.understand the details of transcription control in prokaryotes as
illustrated by three different operons.
8.understand the molecular structure of eukaryotic chromosomes and
repetitive DNA.
9.provide an overview of viruses that infect eukaryotes.
10.understand eukaryotic transcription control via the participating
transcription factors, promoters and silencers.
11.appreciate the various types of genes and control mechanisms in
eukaryotes.
12.understand methylation and its function in chromosome inactivation
and gene imprinting.
13.describe eukaryotic posttranscriptional processing, initiation of
translation and posttranslational modifications.
14.contrast and compare the molecular genetics (structure and control)
of prokaryote versus eukaryote genes.
Molecular Genetics will be posted until mid-November (instead of the
standard one month time limit) to be replaced by our last course,
Medical Genetics.
So leap over to www.synapses.co.uk/genetics
and learn Genetics!
Regards,
Dr Jamie Love
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Merlin's Science Academy offers self-paced, self-learning science
courses (Chemistry, Astronomy and Genetics)
specially written for home schoolers and other distance learners.
Visit the academy at
http://www.synapses.co.uk/merlin/index.html
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