Additional green light induces shade response symptoms in as evidenced by increased lateral root spread.

In some plant species, green light (500 to 570 nm) has been shown to act as a shade signal, which stimulates non-photosynthetic photoreceptors to initiate a response that promotes shading symptoms, including lateral root formation. No studies to date have examined whether green light induces shading symptoms in specifically. Here, we report increased hypocotyl length, root width, and increased width:depth ratio of root architecture in plants grown under additional green light compared to red and blue light, and white light alone.

Crossing the Threshold: Bringing Biological Variation to the Foreground.

Threshold concepts have been referred to as "jewels in the curriculum": concepts that are key to competency in a discipline but not taught explicitly. In biology, researchers have proposed the idea of threshold concepts that include such topics as variation, randomness, uncertainty, and scale. In this essay, we explore how the notion of threshold concepts can be used alongside other frameworks meant to guide instructional and curricular decisions, and we examine the proposed threshold concept of variation and how it might influence students' understanding of core concepts in biology focused on genetics and evolution.

Beyond Punnett squares: Student word association and explanations of phenotypic variation through an integrative quantitative genetics unit investigating anthocyanin inheritance and expression in Brassica rapa Fast plants.

Genetics instruction in introductory biology is often confined to Mendelian genetics and avoids the complexities of variation in quantitative traits. Given the driving question "What determines variation in phenotype (Pv)? (Pv=Genotypic variation Gv + environmental variation Ev)," we developed a 4-wk unit for an inquiry-based laboratory course focused on the inheritance and expression of a quantitative trait in varying environments. We utilized Brassica rapa Fast Plants as a model organism to study variation in the phenotype anthocyanin pigment intensity.

Studying human disease genes in Caenorhabditis elegans: a molecular genetics laboratory project.

Scientists routinely integrate information from various channels to explore topics under study. We designed a 4-wk undergraduate laboratory module that used a multifaceted approach to study a question in molecular genetics. Specifically, students investigated whether Caenorhabditis elegans can be a useful model system for studying genes associated with human disease.

Points of view: a survey of survey courses: are they effective?

Cell Biology Education (CBE) CBE. CBE