Preparing graduate student teaching assistants in the sciences: An intensive workshop focused on active learning.

In the past ten years, increasing evidence has demonstrated that scientific teaching and active learning improve student retention and learning gains in the sciences. Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), who play an important role in undergraduate education at many universities, require training in these methods to encourage implementation, long-term adoption, and advocacy. Here, we describe the design and evaluation of a two-day training workshop for first-year GTAs in the life sciences.

A BioBrick compatible strategy for genetic modification of plants.

Background: Plant biotechnology can be leveraged to produce food, fuel, medicine, and materials. Standardized methods advocated by the synthetic biology community can accelerate the plant design cycle, ultimately making plant engineering more widely accessible to bioengineers who can contribute diverse creative input to the design process.

Results: This paper presents work done largely by undergraduate students participating in the 2010 International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) competition.

Assembly of Snu114 into U5 snRNP requires Prp8 and a functional GTPase domain.

Snu114 is a U5 snRNP protein essential for pre-mRNA splicing. Based on its homology with the ribosomal translocase EF-G, it is thought that GTP hydrolysis by Snu114 induces conformational rearrangements in the spliceosome. We recently identified allele-specific genetic interactions between SNU114 and genes encoding three other U5 snRNP components, Prp8 and two RNA-dependent ATPases, Prp28 and Brr2, required for destabilization of U1 and U4 snRNPs prior to catalysis.

Genetic analysis reveals a role for the C terminus of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae GTPase Snu114 during spliceosome activation.

Snu114 is the only GTPase required for mRNA splicing. As a homolog of elongation factor G, it contains three domains (III-V) predicted to undergo a large rearrangement following GTP hydrolysis. To assess the functional importance of the domains of Snu114, we used random mutagenesis to create conditionally lethal alleles.