Writing in Biology

One of the organisms we intend to record data on in our experiment is the Carpenter Bee. According to the article “Temperature Regulation of Carpenter Bees (Xylocopa Californica) Foraging in the Colorado Desert of Southern California,” this species of bees have an optimal temperature in which they are active and thriving. The article determined that these bees are most efficient during warmer temperature, “ The carpenter bee Xylocopa californica is active during the hot season in the southern California.” (Chappe MA. 1982.) The study was conducted by collecting bees and taking their temperature through the thorax by insertion of a probe. In our experiment we aim to use obtain temperature in a qualitative method of hot versus cold based on the assumptions of the participants. Although qualitatively recorded, the presence of these carpenter bees or lack of the bees will determine which environment was a better environment for this species to thrive. This method is not only isolated to the carpenter bees, but to the other organisms that will be recorded by the groups.

The scientific article “Arthropods of the Great Indoors: Characterizing diversity inside Urban and Suburban Homes,” introduced the idea of collecting data on the different types of organisms that can be found inside of houses in Raleigh, North Carolina. The study obtained this data by invasively collecting organisms such as arthropods and dusts mites in 50 random homes in the area. The collection that is listed in the article showed that those organisms found in the houses were categorized based “on their similarities and use,” and the family of the organism was determined for those identifiable, “We identified all specimens to family level except when specimens were badly damaged or required additional methods for identification (e.g., slide mounting of mites and other taxa).” (Bertone MA, Leong M, Bayless KM, Malow TLF, Dunn RR, Trautwein MD. PeerJ. 2016.) Although the article aims at collecting data in residential houses, we aim to obtain data collected in an educational environment of the science building of Morrill III and IV. The data collection is also aimed to be less invasive than what was mention in the article as we plan to observe than collect.

The vampire bat’s gut microbiome shows that the functional profile is less influenced by the phylogeny than the taxonomic profile. The vampire bat harbors a set of functions specialized to its extreme diet. Which was characterized by the KEGG annotations of the microbial non-redundant gene catalogues assembled from the metagenomic data sets.

Prior to and at UMass I have taken and strived at environmental and ecology courses. Prior to UMass, I took a course in which I had to spend 5 hours a week in nature then write reports on my experiences and what I learned. In addition to my school related experience on nature and other science based knowledge, my leadership ability that I have acquired though the Army would benefit me in leading and teaching children in team based activities. I believe that being an Environmental Educator, it will benefit me in improving and perfecting my teaching style while also bringing what I have learned from the Army to the program. Using my knowledge on nature/ the environment from my education and my leadership/ teaching techniques from the Army, I can make a meaningful contribution to Mass Audubon’s mission to protect the nature of Massachusetts for people and for wildlife by educating our next generation who will have a big impact on the future.

-        Aliens example: one example provided is of aliens from a faraway galaxy which are strikingly like humans. These aliens are not only interfertile with humans, but they are genotypically similar. However, the authors suggest that these factors alone would not be enough for us to consider the aliens to be a member of our species (657).

Gull example: In this example, the authors discuss the herring gull and black-backed gull. Both species of gull are found in Europe but are genetically distinct and cannot breed. However, the black-backed gulls found in North America are much more similar morphologically and genetically to herring gulls. If we were to then classify the North American black-backed gulls and the herring gulls, by transitive property, the black-backed gulls of Europe would then be of the same species as herring gulls. The authors point out that if species sameness is enough to link the two gulls, but they cannot be linked because they are not interfertile, it presents a counterintuitive dilemma with species classification.

In his Nobel lecture, Hartwell provides a well-rounded overview of the history and future of cell cycle regulation research. He also discusses the future of research as it pertains to solving human disease, taking a closer look at gene interactions and how they pertain to phenotypic variation. For Hartwell, yeast as a model organism for the study of not only cell cycle regulation, but a host of different topics in molecular biology can provide insight in the future into human disease. Cell cycle regulation is a complex and important mechanism that is highly conserved throughout eukaryotic lineages and further research and understanding are extremely important for not only molecular biologists, but medical practitioners and evolutionary biologists as well.

Another pivotal part of Hartwell’s lecture is his discussion of effects of mis-regulation of the cell cycle and its consequences regarding genomic stability and fidelity. The hallmark of cancer cells is uncontrolled cell growth and proliferation, but they also divide with far worse fidelity, or accuracy than normal cells. This loss of fidelity leads them to mutate and evolve quicker and makes cancer even harder to treat. Hartwell and Ted Weinert studied genes that could have a role in DNA damage checkpoints of the cell cycle and discovered the RAD9 gene, which when mutated resulted in a 20 fold increase in the rate of chromosome loss.  The controlling role of CDK in the cell cycle of frogs and yeast were discovered, and along with their homology, the mechanism by which CDK activity is regulated which is the, “series of regulatory signaling pathways, checkpoints, that keep the cell informed of each event’s progress.”

Hartwell’s main discovery was that of CDC genes and the role they play in such cell cycle events in yeast as budding, DNA synthesis, nuclear division cytokinesis and cell division. Hartwell conducted various experiments arresting yeast cells at different points in the cell cycle, as well as comparing the phenotypic defects of cells mutant for the CDC28 gene and others with wild-type yeast cells. He found that the CDC28 gene was required for the commencement of two pathways. The first involved in budding, nuclear migration, cytokinesis and cell division and the other involving DNA replication, nuclear division and joined the first pathway prior to cytokinesis and cell division. Although not referred to in the paper, I interpreted this as concluding evidence of the CDC28 gene being involved in both asexual and sexual reproduction pathways of yeast. Hartwell did however talk about research done by Duntze and Maney regarding the connection between the secretion of pheromones by M ata cells and control of the cell cycle and specifically inhibition of DNA synthesis. Hartwell states that following his discovery of the CDC28 gene, the work Paul Nurse did regarding cyclin dependent kinases unified the cell cycle field. Nurse worked on the CDC2 gene, which he determined its expression to be the rate-limited step of mitosis in S. pombe.

In 2001, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was given to Leland Hartwell, Timothy Hunt and Paul Nurse for their discoveries of the key regulators of the cell cycle. This literature is the lecture given by Leland Hartwell on his Nobel Prize winning research as well as decades of research by a multitude of different scientists that led to the understanding of the cell cycle. In the lecture, Hartwell discusses the discovery of several important players in the cell cycle as well as their role, the effects of cell cycle mis-regulation, and the possible medical applications involving cancer treatment.

Cyclohexanol was reacted via dehydration reaction in the presence of 85% phosphoric acid and cyclohexene was obtained in 28.1% yield. The product was identified to be cyclohexene via gas chromatography, IR spectroscopy and chemical testing. The presence of stretch at 1653 indicates a carbon-carbon double-bond, which would not be present in the starting material. The gas chromatography also did not show -OH band stretching at wavelength 3400-3500, which would have been seen in the starting material. IR spectroscopy also revealed only one compound to be present in essence, accounting for 99.95% of total area. Chemical bromine and potassium permanganate tests both indicated results congruent with those of an alkene (colorless when bromine solution added and brown precipitate formation when potassium permanganate added). Higher yield during distillation could be obtained by heating at a slower rate. Washing methods also could be altered to obtain a higher yield of product.